Body acceptance advocate Katie Sturino was thrilled when Blake Lively publicly supported her re-creation of a recent outfit for her popular Instagram series #SuperSizeTheLook.
“Denim on Denim Goddess! Blake showing us the power of a denim trench 💙,” Sturino captioned a side-by-side pic last month that showed her and the actress, 37, rocking similar ensembles.
Sturino, 43, explained in the caption that her version of the look included a 3X dress from Forever 21, size 22 Lane Bryant trench coat and size 12 Naturalizer shoes.
After seeing the post, Lively commented, “Stunning always 🔥 love this. Thank you for the honor.”
She then joked about the micro handbags they both held in the photos, adding, “And I love your purse. Even though they don’t hold our phones I don’t care 🤩. It’s too cute.”
In an exclusive interview with Page Six Style, Sturino tells us she was “really excited that [Lively] took notice of” the upload.
“I’m such a fan of hers, and I think that she does incredible things for women,” the influencer shares, adding that Lively has commented on other recreations in the past.
Earlier this fall, Lively came under fire amid her press tour for the movie “It Ends Like Us,” which hit theaters in August.
Mainly, she was criticized for focusing on floral fashion, her Blake Brown haircare line, Betty Booze alcohol brand and her husband Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool & Wolverine” movie instead of the serious topics addressed in her movie, “It Ends With Us,” including domestic violence and abuse.
“Blake Lively spending the entire press run for her new film, which is about domestic violence and abuse, acting like it’s a fun gals night out like seeing ‘Mamma Mia’ and promoting her businesses at the same time is INSANE behavior,” one of many critics penned via X (formerly Twitter).
Another user was “appalled” that Lively cracked jokes when a reporter asked what she would say to fans who “relate” to the film’s heavy themes.
Following the backlash, the movie star took to her Instagram to post a clip from one of her interviews in which she branded her character, Lily Bloom, a “survivor.” The actress then shared stats on intimate partner violence as well as a link for the hotline and access to “immediate help.”
As for Sturino, she tells Page Six Style that other celebrities — including Reese Witherspoon, Busy Philipps, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kelly Rutherford, Kathy Hilton and Christine Quinn — have come across her work and praised her for it online.
#SuperSizeTheLook was born in 2015 because Sturino “wanted to show women of all sizes that if they were inspired by a celebrity style, that they could actually wear that style no matter what their size is.”
“Because celebrities are typically so tiny, I think women often say, ‘I like that, but I can’t wear it because of my arms, legs,’ whatever body part that they’re feeling insecure about,” she tells us. “And so I just like to show women on my frame, which is a size 18, that they can actually rock this style.”
Over the past nine years, Sturino says she realized that “women of all sizes” were following her on social media because they were “inspired by the fact that [she] was fearless” with her fashion.
“I was like, ‘Wait, all these women — even the smaller ones — feel like they can’t wear this, they can’t wear that? This is this is wrong, and I’m going to help women of all sizes feel better and feel more comfortable and confident in their own skin,’” she shares.
Sturino, who founded Megababe Beauty, a line of products that address “thigh chafe, boob sweat and funky pits,” has also partnered with Stitch Fix to help the average woman obtain affordable access to a personal stylist in the comfort of her own home.
The Wisconsin native recently shared with her more than 800,000 Instagram followers her disappointment with the 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which resumed its original format last month after a five-year hiatus following complaints that its products and models were not inclusive enough.
“They took six years off, five or six years off, to reset as a brand, which was totally necessary for them to do,” she tells us. “And they came back, and it just felt like I was in a time machine looking at the same — like, yes, they had some diversity on the runway, but for the majority [of the show], it was just the same impossible standard.”
While Sturino refers to the typically thin Victoria’s Secret Angel as “beautiful,” she feels this year’s catwalk event was still “selling a fantasy and an unattainable goal.”
“For me, it wasn’t an invitation to be a Victoria’s Secret Angel, like, your own way,” she laments. “It was like, ‘Look how hot everyone is.’”
Given A-listers’ rarely admitted recent obsession with diabetes medications-turned-weigh-loss drugs like Ozempic, we asked Sturino for her take on the arguably troubling trend.
“It’s hard because it’s a tool that is helping so many people, but it’s just being abused by people who don’t need it. And then it becomes, like, kind of demonized,” she explains, calling the conversation “complicated.”