Get to know Catie!

Catie Li can do it all. As one of 6 women featured in Women’s Health’s annual Naked Issue (May 2022) this rising model and content creator is also real-life girl boss!

Catie is changing the industry by promoting body positive messaging and embracing her mixed-race identity. As a successful Chinese-American plus size model, Catie travels the world and stars in campaigns for top tier fashion and beauty brands.

Today, HOLR is chatting with Catie to learn about how she channels authenticity through her platforms, her experience as a guest judge for Good American’s Open Casting, her collab with Amazon, and so much more!

You’re a multi-talented model, content creator, and girl boss! Talk to us about how you’re changing the industry by both embracing your identity and reinforcing body-positive messaging.

My main message is really about honesty, and I’m really focused on promoting messages of being honest with yourself and your body. I really try to keep a very authentic page and I think that’s why a lot of my followers like to follow me because I stay true to myself and I’m not sugar-coating a lot of things.

A lot of the time, when we’re on Insatgram, we see things that are painting a picture that might not be true reality, which ultimately creates FOMO for everyone else! For me, I try to be as authentic as I can be. Whether that’s being plus size, or talking about my expeirences working with certain brands, or what’s going on in the fashion industry, I really try to stay authentic and honest thorughout my platform.

Tell us about your experience as a guest judge for the first fully inclusive fashion brand, Good American’s 4th annual Open Casting.

It was really exciting because they flew me out to Miami and I got to meet the team which was really great! Khloe wasn’t there, unfortunately, but I got to meet the rest of the team I worked with prior as a model.

It was great to have girls come in because it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there! It’s hard to do that. Not everybody can take that risk and put themselves out there in front of three people that are probably very intimidating judges, in order to share their story.

To be able to come out and share one’s story or trauma is super brave. The fact that the contestants even just put themselves out there in the first place is so important. Round of applause to everyone who came out.

I’m not sure if they chose anyone yet, but I hope they chose a great, diverse group of women. There were women of all ages and sizes who came to participate, so it will be great to see older or more mature as well being involved in their campaigns because I think there’s also a lack of representation there. We’re so loud about the plus-size women but let’s also embrace the women who are rocking their gray hair and maturing! That’s going to be us one day! Why aren’t we embracing the beautful gray hair? Why is that considred a negative? I think that’s something we should be discussing as well, as we continue to touch on topics of inclusivity.

Things don’t stop just beause you reach a certain age-if you still want to be trendy at 40 and 50 do it! I’ve seen it, and it’s amazing! As I’m getting older, I feel like I’m in my prime! I’m going to continue to do what I’m doing now.

Congrats on the release of your collection with The Drop from Amazon Fashion! Walk us through how this journey came to be and what we can expect to see from the collection.

I was very lucky and blessed. I love modelling but I also love content creating because it allows me to be myself.

I was creating content and I had preivously done something with Amazon that took off and they reached out to me to do this collection. It was a fast-paced situation I learned a lot from.

The whole idea came from bringing in influencers and doing these fast drops (only lasting about 36 hours) and you need to be precise about how you want things and what you want, because you can only sample things once.

It was a really fascinating process but I loved it! I know the trails now. For instance, in my collection, I wanted to include plus-size pants but those items need to be sampled 2-3 times so although I couldnt’ include them in my previous drop, moving forward I know these things now!

My collection was made up of basics that people could keep in their collection for a long period of time. They’re timeless staples. I think that was a great start and I can’t wait to see, moving forward, what else is to come.

Years ago, I also had an online plus-size store that did really well. It was great to see the transition of owning a store to designing. I hope it only goes up from here!

You’re a true inspiration! What accomplishments are you most proud of, to date?

I just had something exciting drop this month! I just did one of my most vulnerable photo shoots with Women’s Health, where I posed for their naked issue.

It was very challenging, mentally, but it was definitely one of my most accomplished moments. However the photos turned out, they turned out, but I know I’ll love them and they’ll be beautiful.

Whether one or a hundred people see it, as long as I can relate to someone that’s the most important thing to me. Growing up, I never had someone I could look up to in a magazine where I could say, “That looks like me.” It’s important now for girls to see women of all shapes and sizes they can look up to being represented.

It was an incredible opportunity. I’m so grateful and am excited to see it!

Published by HOLR Magazine.