Lesego Legobane: Plus-Size Model Shuts Down Body-Shamer Who Shared Cruel Meme About Her Weight

Lesego Legobane has no patience for body-shamers looking to turn her curvy physique into a punchline.

The plus-size model found that her image was turned into a body-shaming meme on Twitter, and decided she would not remain quiet about it. The meme showed a modeling shot of Legobane side-by-side with a much thinner woman, along with the caption, “Girls that I like vs Girls that like me.” The implication is that Lesego Legobane (despite being an internationally known model and looking great in the photo in question) represents the unattractive option.

Legobane wasn’t having any of it. The South African beauty set the Twitter user straight with a simple and straightforward response: “I don’t like you.”

The response went viral almost immediately, garnering close to 1 million likes and attracting attention from news sites worldwide. Legobane got plenty of support from celebrities as well, with BuzzFeed noting that her tweet was “liked” by Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Ava Duvernay, and many others.

Legobane followed up the viral tweet with another picture on her Instagram page, showing off her figure above the same caption, “I don’t like you.”

Lesego Legobane has not always been so confident about her figure. The model has been very open about her past struggles with body image, saying she often didn’t like the way she looked. But Legebane said her move into modeling opened up her perspective and helped her love herself.

I don't like you https://t.co/91TJ5xypV8

— thickleeyonce (@ThickLeeyonce) September 19, 2017

“?I struggled with self-esteem issues as a teenager, became self-conscious, and believed something was wrong with me,” Legobane told Cosmopolitan. “Then I started taking photographs of myself. I saw a beautiful girl in the photos and I decided I’d no longer be cruel toward her.?”

Since then, Legobane has become something of an ambassador for body positivity, sharing uplifting messages on her blog and helping to highlight the work of other so-called “plus-size” models. She also has her own website that offers more fashionable clothing options for women of all sizes and has been featured in a number of magazines as an example of the opening mindset of the fashion world.

Lesego Legobane was not the only person put off by the body-shaming meme. The thinner model featured opposite Legobane’s picture, Joelle Kayembe, told Allure that it was “rude and unnecessary” for the person to create the image and definitely did not take her inclusion as a compliment.

[Featured Image by Lesego Legobane/Instagram]