Campaigns We Love: #AerieREAL Life
If you pay any attention to TikTok, the viral #AerieREAL hashtag has likely graced your “For You Page” over the past month. Aerie, the American Eagle’s loungewear and lingerie line, launched the #AerieREAL campaign seven years ago in an effort to promote body positivity and diversity. Since its launch, several notable influencers such as Keke Palmer and Sienna Gomez have partnered as Role Models for the brand, and have been flooding social media with content. Remi Bader, beloved for her realistic clothing hauls, is the most recent addition to the Role Model team.
For years now, Aerie has been one of the few brands committed to modeling their clothes with unedited photos. Real women, exactly as they are. When shopping online at Aerie, you’re guaranteed to see models of all shapes, sizes, and colors. They even use many models with disabilities, a move that many other brands are falling behind on. It’s hard not to find a model on their website you don’t see a bit of yourself in.
But #AerieREAL goes beyond just the shopping and social media posts. It’s rooted in the very foundation of the brand. Brand ambassadors aren’t your typical, edited-to-perfection influencers. They fully support Aerie’s mission and commitment to posting only unretouched photos and sharing their real personality, real flaws, and everything in between when they post content. Both the Aerie Role Models and the corporate team are advocates for social change, labeled as “Changemakers” by the brand, and are committed not just to accepting women as they are, but to making the world a better place in general.
The Aerie Real Life homepage features some fabulous free content designed to empower and inspire. Did we mention it’s completely free? The six sections, REAL Talk, Style & Trends, Health & Movement, Aerie Fam, Better World, and Events, include articles that simultaneously give customers self-love advice and highlight the moves the Aerie brand and its ambassadors are spearheading to save the world, including developing sustainable clothing and donating to a handful of philanthropies. The website content inspires readers not just to embrace themselves, but to be advocates for the change they’d like to see in the world.
Remi Bader, the most recent addition to the team, embodies this idea flawlessly. She built her social media platform around her realistic hauls of clothing from big brands like Free People and Revolve. Bader’s hauls are a breath of fresh air compared to the typical clothing hauls we see, which are often created by women whose bodies perfectly mirror the original clothing models.
We’ve all had moments of disappointment when we receive a clothing piece and it looks nothing on our bodies like it does on the model, and that always creates room for insecurity. Well, Bader is here to tell us that it’s not the wearer, it’s the clothes. In ordering and modeling larger sizes from popular brands, she has shown us that many of our favorite brands are not inclusive for women with curves. The XL and XXL sizes are often not designed to fit the women they target, and “plus-size models” often mirror average-sized bodies instead of plus-sized, which leaves women of all sizes feeling unsatisfied with our bodies when there’s NO REASON TO BE.
Bader has called out several brands, asking them to create sizes that accommodate women of all shapes, and even suggesting they partner with her to design fashion lines, a level of confidence we can’t help but admire. It’s no surprise that she caught Aerie’s attention, and we’re so happy to see her on the team.
“I feel like I’m a real influencer, and a real content creator. There’s nothing else about it. I will never be that influencer that just makes themselves look perfect, and I also will not preach that I’m happy about things like my body when maybe I’m not,” she said in an April 5 interview with StyleCaster. “Like, how can you not listen to your thousands and thousands and millions of customers on Tiktok—or me!—basically begging you to make a change. It’s like, do it already!”
The message that even influencers have their moments of insecurity and unhappiness with their bodies, and that’s okay and normal, is an important one. We all have bad days, and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it. At the end of the day, all we can do is remind ourselves that we are beautiful, flaws and all, and look to brands like Aerie that are highlighting this empowering message in the fashion industry.
We saw it with the Dove Real Beauty campaign in 2004 and we see it now with the #AerieREAL campaign; people love to feel uplifted by the brands they support. We hope that in the future, more brands will take a page out of Aerie’s book and listen to influencers like Bader who are begging for inclusivity. Major props to Aerie, we love the work you do.
We also want to note that as part of the Aerie Real Reveal Challenge, every Instagram post using the #AerieReal hashtag and tagging the brand will result in a $1 donation to the National Eating Disorder Association, so get to posting, and tag @theedgemag while you’re at it. If this message calls to you and you want to get even more involved with the Aerie brand, check out this page on how to apply to be an ambassador. We’d be thrilled to see you!