Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathia Eugene.
Cathia, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My journey as a content creator actually started over 15 years ago, long before being a “content creator” was considered a career. I started simply by sharing myself, my style, and my experiences as a plus size woman. At the time, I didn’t see many women who looked like me being represented in fashion, travel, or lifestyle spaces, so I decided to create the representation I wanted to see.
Over the years, what started as a love for fashion grew into a community. I built an audience of more than 87,000 followers and had opportunities to work with brands, build businesses, create content, travel, and connect with women who saw pieces of themselves in my story.
My journey, however, hasn’t been a straight line. I’ve experienced tremendous personal loss throughout my life, and those experiences have shaped so much of the woman I am today. Grief has changed the way I look at life, time, relationships, and even success. It taught me that life can change very quickly, and because of that, I’ve become much more intentional about actually living traveling, trying new things, pursuing my ideas, and creating memories with the people I love.
I’ve also experienced different seasons in entrepreneurship and my career, and even lost the social media platform I spent years building. Having to start over after building a community of that size was difficult, but it reminded me that my impact was never tied to a follower count. The platform may have disappeared, but the woman who built it didn’t. I knew I could build again.
And that’s exactly what I’m doing today.
My content has evolved beyond fashion into lifestyle, beauty, travel, confidence, and entrepreneurship while still creating space for plus-size women to see themselves represented. Whether I’m putting together an outfit, traveling across the world, sharing something I’ve learned, or documenting a new chapter of my life, I want another woman watching to think, “I can do that too.”
Turning 30 this year has made this chapter feel even more meaningful. I’m still growing, still learning, and still figuring certain things out, but I have a much deeper understanding of who I am and the kind of life I want to create.
For me, my story isn’t about having everything figured out. It’s about continuing to show up through every version of myself through loss, change, success, setbacks, and new beginnings and giving myself permission to keep becoming the woman I’m meant to be.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. One of the biggest things that has shaped my journey has been grief.
I lost my mom when I was 21 years old, and that was by far one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through. Losing her completely changed my reality and the way I viewed life. A few years later, I lost my dad. Before I even turned 30, I had lost two of the people who meant the absolute world to me, and those losses changed me in ways that are difficult to put into words.
At the time I lost my dad, I was the owner of a plus-size boutique that was doing well. But after his passing, I went through a period of depression, and I started to realize that the version of me who had built and loved that business wasn’t the same version of me anymore. I didn’t have the same passion for it, and for a while, that was difficult for me to accept. I had worked hard to build something successful, so walking away from it almost felt like I was walking away from a part of myself.
Eventually, I had to understand that sometimes life changes you, and it’s okay for your dreams to change with you.
I share that because I think grief is one of the hardest things a person can experience, and I’ve also learned that grief doesn’t only come from losing someone. Sometimes you grieve the life you thought you would have. You can grieve a relationship, a missed opportunity, a career you thought would work out, a version of yourself you no longer recognize, or simply the way you thought your life would look by a certain age. Grief can come in so many different forms.
For me, though, the hardest kind has been losing someone I love and knowing I won’t get to see them again in this lifetime. There are accomplishments and beautiful moments in my life where I still think, “I wish my mom could see this,” or “I wish my dad was here for this.” You learn how to continue living, but you carry them with you.
Those experiences have completely changed the way I approach life. They’ve made me realize how precious time is and how quickly everything can change. It’s part of the reason I want to experience life fully to travel, try things that scare me, pursue new ideas, create memories, love the people around me, and not continuously postpone happiness for some future version of my life.
My road hasn’t been perfect, and I’m still figuring things out. I’ve had to start over in business, in social media, and personally. But I’ve learned that starting over doesn’t erase everything that came before it. Sometimes starting over is simply becoming someone new.
I don’t want grief to define my entire story, but I can’t tell my story without acknowledging how much it has shaped the woman I am today.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a content creator and entrepreneur specializing in plus size fashion, lifestyle, beauty, and travel. I originally became known for sharing plus size fashion and styling, but over the years, my platform has evolved as I’ve evolved. Today, I share everything from fashion and beauty to travel, new experiences, personal growth, and entrepreneurship.
Representation has always been at the heart of what I do. I want women, especially plus-size women, to see someone who looks like them wearing the outfit, traveling the world, trying new things, building businesses, and enjoying life without feeling like they have to wait until they reach a certain size or become some “perfect” version of themselves.
Entrepreneurship has also been a major part of my journey. I previously owned and operated a plus-size boutique, and that experience taught me so much about business, branding, understanding my customers, and the plus-size market. Although I eventually stepped away from that business, I never lost my entrepreneurial spirit. I’m currently working behind the scenes on my next venture and reimagining what I want my place in the plus-size space to look like. I’m taking everything I learned from my first business what worked, what didn’t, and what I felt was missing and using those lessons to create something even more intentional and aligned with the woman I am today.
One of the things I’m most proud of is the community I’ve been able to build. I grew my previous social media platform to more than 87,000 followers, and after losing that account, I made the decision to start completely over. In less than three months, I’ve already rebuilt my community to more than 15,000 followers and counting. That experience showed me that what I created was never just about a number or a social media account. My creativity, my voice, my experience, and my ability to genuinely connect with people came with me. Losing my platform was a setback, but rebuilding it has reminded me that I’m capable of creating something meaningful all over again.
I think what sets me apart is that I’m not afraid to let people see the evolution. I don’t present myself as someone who has everything figured out. I’m still growing, learning, changing directions, starting over, taking risks, and becoming the woman I want to be. I can share a beautiful outfit or an amazing trip while still being honest about the fact that real life is happening behind the scenes.
Ultimately, I want my platform to feel like permission permission to wear the outfit, take the trip, start the business, start over, take up space, change your mind, and create a life that feels good to you. I don’t just want to be known for what I wear or where I travel. I want to be known for reminding women that they don’t have to wait for a future version of themselves to start living.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
The biggest advice I would give anyone starting out is: just start.
I used to tell myself, “I’ll do it when I have everything I need,” or “I’ll start when the timing is better.” Looking back, I realize how much time we can waste waiting for the perfect moment. The truth is, there is no perfect time. You’re probably never going to feel completely ready, and you’re not going to have everything figured out before you begin.
Some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned have come from simply doing. You can research, plan, watch videos, and prepare forever, but there are certain things you will only learn once you actually put yourself out there. That’s where the real lessons happen. That’s where you discover what works, what doesn’t, what you’re good at, and where you need to grow. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. Your first version doesn’t have to be your best version.
I also think consistency is so important. You don’t have to do everything at once, but you do have to keep showing up. There will be days when you feel motivated and days when you don’t. If you know this is something you truly want, keep going. You may not see the results immediately, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress.
Beyond business or content creation, one of the biggest things life and grief have taught me is just how precious life really is. One thing every single one of us has in common is that eventually, our time here will come to an end. Tomorrow is never promised, and experiencing loss has made that very real for me. So my advice is also: do not wait to live your life.
We can become so focused on what we don’t have, whether it’s the money, the house, the car, the relationship, the career, or the followers, that we forget how much there is to be grateful for right now. Being able to wake up, see another day, move your body, call someone you love, laugh, experience something new, or simply have another opportunity to try again are blessings that can easily be taken for granted. Gratitude has genuinely changed the way I look at my life. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. It will change your life.
Be intentional about your mindset and the people you surround yourself with. Give yourself grace. Be kind to yourself. Do things that scare you. Keep showing up for yourself. Romanticize your life, not because everything is perfect, but because there is still beauty in the life you have while you’re working toward the life you want.
And if you want to become an entrepreneur, content creator, or put yourself into any public space, you have to learn to stop giving other people so much power over how you feel about yourself. You cannot build your life around everyone else’s opinions. People are going to have something to say whether you succeed, fail, start, stop, change your mind, or do nothing at all. You have to become comfortable being seen, being a beginner, making mistakes, and sometimes being misunderstood.
Most importantly for me, I believe in putting God first. I can make all the plans in the world, but ultimately, I pray for guidance, trust His timing, and ask that what I’m pursuing is aligned with what He has for my life.
If I could go back and tell my younger self anything, it would be: stop waiting. Start with what you have, where you are. Stop worrying so much about what everybody thinks. Be grateful for the life you have while building the life you want. Do the things that scare you. Put God first, stay consistent, and most importantly, don’t get so busy preparing for your life that you forget to actually live it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/Therealbigfine
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealbigfinee/
