Featured photo: Myra Diggs, who goes by Myra Victoria online, is a plus-size, social-media influencer specializing in trendy, flattering and affordable fashion for the full-figured woman. (courtesy photo)
Dressed in a gray graphic tee and black leggings, Myra Diggs stacks one more shoebox atop the pile on her bed. She adjusts the lighting in her room and sets the self timer on her phone to record as she prepares to show her newest collection of kicks to her 40,000 TikTok followers.
“I found myself liking helping other girls that looked like me with how to dress,” she says.
Diggs, who goes by Myra Victoria online, is a plus-size, social-media influencer specializing in trendy, flattering and affordable fashion for the full-figured woman. The 23-year-old also vlogs, filling her YouTube channel with ‘Day in the Life,’ ‘Get Ready With Me’ and shopping trip videos.
Diggs graduated from Southwest Guilford High School in 2018 and later attended Guilford Technical Community College but withdrew in 2020, realizing that wasn’t the path she wanted to take.
“I just always knew I wanted to entertain people or help people in certain ways,” she says.
During the height of the pandemic, Diggs was unemployed and needed to find a way to keep moving. She’s aware that at her size, she has to stay active to avoid health complications, like immobility in her legs. Her friend Shanice Holder convinced her to start a YouTube channel because she’s always been into fashion, but a lack of inspiration and motivation caused Diggs to procrastinate. When she started experiencing depression due to isolation caused by COVID restrictions, something had to give.
Let’s be productive, she told herself.
In August 2020, she uploaded her first YouTube video — an unboxing of skincare products.
Since then, she’s posted nearly 100 TikTok videos and 30 YouTube videos, gaining more than 1000 subscribers.
But social-media stardom hasn’t always been easy for Diggs because the internet tends to be cruel to those who don’t fit society’s “standard” of beauty: thin. In a TikTok posted last August, she dances to a remix of “DJ Play a Love Song” by Jamie Foxx as she shows excitement over her new hairstyle, goddess locs. That didn’t last long once a negative comment got in Diggs’ head.
“You look pretty and all, but you really need to do something about your weight,” the commenter said unsolicitedly.
She almost deleted the video, but she couldn’t. Too many comments were pouring in. With every second that passed, the number of likes increased. Her phone received so many notifications she couldn’t use it for four days. When clothing companies started reaching out to her for partnerships because of the publicity, Diggs knew the video had to stay up.
The video is Diggs’ most popular, amassing more than 3 million views to date.
The result opened a realm of possibilities for Diggs. She knows there will always be negative comments, so she found a solution.
“I don’t even read the comments anymore on my old videos,” she says.
Growing up in Brooklyn, NY with a single mother, Diggs didn’t always have the latest clothes from luxury designers. She says in Brooklyn, people placed designer labels and appearances on pedestals. She heard things from others about plus-size women being “sloppy” or “careless” about how they looked. With this in mind, she aimed to prove them wrong.
“I worked with what I had, and when I put it on, I put it on well,” she says. “A real fashionista can put anything together and make it work.”
With her platform, Diggs aims to guide plus-size girls and women through shopping for trendy items like crop tops, form fitting jumpsuits and two-piece sets without spending a lot of money. She opts for affordable clothing from sites like Boohoo, SHEIN and Cider. There’s no gatekeeping with her when it comes to dressing for your body type.
“There’s a lot of girls like me that don’t know how to do that, so how about I help them do that?” she says.
Keep up with Myra Victoria on TikTok at @myr_avictoria and Instagram at @myr.avictoria. Check out her YouTube channel at youtube.com/@myravictoria.
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