Tess Holliday hits back at 'horrible people' who body-shame her

Plus-size model Tess Holliday has no patience for body-shamers.

After Holliday shared an image of herself scantily-clad on the new Cosmopolitan UK magazine cover, she received an avalanche of support from her fans -- but also, a fair amount of criticism from people who accused her of promoting obesity.

The model responded to the comments with a kiss-off of her own on Thursday.

"To everyone saying I’m a burden to the British health care system, I’m American so you don’t have to worry about my fat ass," she wrote on Twitter. "Worry about what horrible people you are by whining about how me being on the cover of a glossy magazine impacts your small minded life."

The no-holds-bar reaction doesn't come as a surprise to anybody who's familiar with the 33-year-old model. Holliday is well-known for pressing women of all sizes to love their bodies, and in her interview with Cosmo UK, she explained why she launched the movement #effyourbeautystandards.

"I was angry and sad that people kept commenting on my pictures saying, 'You’re too fat to wear that!' or 'Cover up! No one wants to see that!'" she said. "And then one night I was lying in bed and thought, 'F--- that!' So I posted an image with four photographs of myself wearing things that fat women are often told we 'can’t wear,' and encouraged others to do the same."

The hashtag has been used more than 3.2 million times, and Holliday herself has developed a following of more than 1.6 million people. After her cover came out, she tweeted how meaningful it is to be a role model for others, noting, "If I saw a body like mine on this magazine when I was a young girl, it would have changed my life."

Her fans backed her up.

"For some reason, I burst into tears when I saw this. Maybe because I used to pore through women's magazines at a teen for HOURS of misery, imagining how much happier I'd be if I looked like them. I just pray this means my daughters won't waste so many formative minutes," wrote one woman on Twitter. Added another: "Yesssss! If I had seen plus women like me on magazines growing up, it wouldn't have taken 25+ years to love my body. Thank you @Tess_Holliday."

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