Tess Holliday is not holding back in her new memoir.
Like Holliday herself, the book’s title, The Not So Subtle Art of Being a Fat Girl, gets straight to the point, which the model and body activist says was intentional.
“Well, look, I’m fat. There’s no shocker there. I just thought why not put it in the title. It’s going to get people’s attention and hopefully steer it in a more positive conversation,” Holliday, 32, told PEOPLE Now.
The supermodel says that she wants to destigmatize the word “fat.”
“It’s how I describe myself. It’s a descriptor; it’s an adjective,” she says. “You know, it’s how I choose to describe my body. I thought why not have fun with it, why not shock people. It’s kind of what I’ve been about. And hopefully make people laugh and help people.”
The mom-of-two (Holliday gave birth to her first son with her husband Nick just over a year ago) has also been candid about sex, recently posting a quote from her book on Instagram (“Fat people have sex too. A lot of it. And it’s really f—— good.”) alongside a sultry photo of herself.
“People think that if you’re fat or plus size, we’re not getting it like everybody else, and we are!” she adds. “I’m tired, so maybe it’s not as often as I wish, but we do, and we feel sexy. We just want to feel sexy and seen, you know, and it’s good that people hopefully listen.”
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Now that Holliday is in a place where she feels confident in her body, she has some advice for her teenaged self, who used to get bullied for her weight.
“I just would say, look, it gets better. The people that are being mean to you aren’t going the be around or matter when you get older … I would say, just keep working on it,” she says.
Holliday also opened up about her complicated relationship with her dad, which she details in her book.
“I just wish my father would have supported me,” she said. “I know you’re a parent and it’s sometimes hard to be objective with your kids but I think it’s important to what they’re telling you, and maybe if you don’t agree but as long as they aren’t hurting themselves or someone else, just support them and love them.”
As for what it would take to restore that relationship, she said: “Maybe just an apology. I love my dad. I didn’t write the book to hurt his feelings, but it was my story and I thought it was important to share it because I knew it would help other people. But I think there would have to be an ‘I’m sorry’ and start from there.”