Mys Tyler is helping you find your style inspiration.
Hand’s up those who have a healthy database of fashion influencers, with body shapes and colouring that match your own.
If that’s you, then you have certainly set yourself up for a healthy interaction with social media but I can imagine that most would have kept their hands down.
I recently came across an article from the Huffington Post, where they interviewed De-Grace Omari on her struggle to find influencers on Instagram who matched her physical appearance. She detailed how she realised that her feed was full of women who didn't represent her own physical attributes, which then led her down an unhealthy sense of worth.
Why do we, as women, do this to ourselves? Why do we feel the need to compare ourselves to someone who is completely different to us?
I also recently found myself on this journey. It would have been earlier this year, when I too realised that my Instagram feed was full of thin women, who I then began to judge my own self value against. Obviously, clothing wasn't going to look the same on my body as it did on theirs, and logically I knew this. However, the lack of diversity and lack of representation of my shape, made me feel like there was something wrong with the clothes looking differently on me. So I took my mental health into my own hands and culled the accounts that didn't make me feel good about myself and went on the hunt for accounts that did.
It was along this journey that I came across Mys Tyler, a style sharing app that matches you up with contributors that have a similar body to your own. The app is still in its early days but they are taking strides in challenging the issues of size representation in social media.
I had the chance to speak to Mys Tyler’s creator Sarah Neill, and understand more about the app. Sarah revealed that the idea first came about after her own struggles in creating her sense of style and seeking styling advice from friends who she admired but realised were not able to help with styling her own shape. She imagined an app where she could
“...find stylish women who were my same dimensions - essentially body doubles that were more fashionable and that I could copy”.
After receiving a lot of support, she took the steps to launch the app.
Sarah Neill (Source: MBA Australia)
She has received amazing feedback for the app, with one of her most notable being a woman in her 70’s who finally felt comfortable in her own body. Sarah stated that
“We're able to create an experience where every woman feels included, and represented, where they can match with contributors who look similar, who are body-confident and stylish, who look amazing and know that they can look just as amazing!”
The most troubling thing that Sarah has found in her journey, is the lack of availability of plus-size clothing in typical retail settings, with a size 16 contributor confirming that to people of similar size, it is expected to only find one store that will carry suitable items. Sarah expressed that the current state of size representation in the industry is terrible but she is also hopeful that brands are trying to do better. However she emphasises that tokenising shapes apart from a size 6-8 is not the way to go, stating that it is far more important to normalise all bodies and make women feel good about themselves.
So what’s in store for Mys Tyler?
Being such a young business, they are focusing on building the core features and seeking additional capital. On top of this, with the concept of the app being a marketplace where contributors, consumers and retailers come together, the value of the app grows as the user-base grows. Sarah reveals that
“Now that we have proven that we can attract all sides of the marketplace, and have had great feedback from all, we need to focus on growth and scaling.”
Sarah’s five year goal for the app is to have a team of 40,000 contributors serving twenty million women, with contributors being able to earn an income from their recommendations. However, with all of this in mind, Sarah states that
“Most important, we want women to feel more confident, and have more fun with fashion”
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