We interviewed Naomi Shimada three years ago for the What’s Underneath Project video series. She inspired us then and continues to inspire us daily on social media with her singular embrace of herself, which includes her voluptuous curves, her boldly colorful style, her overall joie de vivre and its inextricable link to her darker side. In 2015, when we asked Naomi what her favorite body part was, she said it was her mouth because everything she loves most in life comes from the lips, “Kissing, eating...I feel like so much of what makes me happy goes back to my mouth.” During her 15-year modeling career, Naomi was a pioneer for bravely breaking from the confines of being a “straight-sized” model and letting her body be what it was supposed to be. Now, despite its challenges, she stands outside of any category in the fashion industry, even that of “plus-sized” model, in order to stay fiercely true to herself. Find out why Naomi has blossomed through being single, how dancing helps her get through depression, the complexities of being a model in the age of Instagram, and why, for her, getting dressed is an act of resistance. “Clothes and color are my coping mechanisms and I laugh because I have to to get through life. I really want to demystify the fact that someone is always happy and always ‘on’. I love life. I find beauty in so many things...The most powerful things are the smallest things that happened to you in the day.”

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