"D" for Denise Dibot

Born to a Puerto Rican mother and Kuwaiti father, Bidot is both Latina and Middle Eastern, according to a profile by The Fashion Spot.

She grew up in Miami before making the move to Hollywood at age 18 to try her hand at acting.

After becoming one of the first "plus-sized" models to walk at NYFW in 2014, Bidot told Cosmopolitan she doesn't see the need for labels and hopes the fashion industry moves away from using the term.

"I'm just a woman," she said. "I'm a curvy woman, and hopefully someday they do end up cutting out the word 'plus-size.' But for right now it's nice to just have a section for us."

Bidot reflected on her first NYFW catwalk on Instagram in January 2023. "TBT to this moment that changed my life forever," she wrote, tagging the designer Chromat. "I will always be humbled at the fact that you believed in me enough to open this show and make history with you," she continued, adding that although the fashion industry "has room to keep growing," nothing makes her happier than "to see all the diversity on the runways these days."

In 2017, Bidot appeared in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit issue, posing in an unretouched Lane Bryant ad.

"I was so excited to find out the image was released unretouched," Bidot told PEOPLE about the campaign. "I am pretty unapologetic about my body."

Bidot often shares unretouched images of herself on Instagram as well. She captioned one bikini shot, "It's 2022, we out here… stretch marks, cellulite, rolls, who cares?💚💫." She also launched the "There Is No Wrong Way to Be a Woman" campaign in 2016, describing the movement as a "home of self-love and confidence (and) a safe place for women from all stages in life to come together without judgment."