by Maddy Figueroa-Jones

Moving from a small town to a big city like New York is no easy decision. The plus modeling market in NY proved to be promising enough to this brunette beauty for her to pick up and follow her dreams. Read about how the big city has change life for Mica...

[Maddy] I know from the last time you and I had some time to talk that you moved to NY from the Midwest.

[Mica] Yes, I just got my B.A. in Telecommunications from Indiana University.  My fiancé and I moved to the New York area in August.

[Maddy] Growing up – were you a plus size child?

[Mica] I wasn't really plus size, I was tall and hefty—more of a mesomorph body type, and not lean.

[Maddy] Did you experience difficulties accepting your body as a curvy body?

[Mica] I didn't really have self-esteem problems until I was about 12 or 13, when my exposure to media increased.  I was reading a lot more fashion mags, watching more movies...Of course all the "attractive" women shown were slender.  I'm lucky in that I have always been proportionate and pretty athletic looking, so after a 2-3 year period of obsessing over fashion mags and tiny gangly models and feeling insecure, I kind of got over feeling that I needed to be skinny.  I remember still being envious of girls that were skinny, but I also wasn't willing to put in the effort to force my body to deviate from its natural size. I ate pretty healthy and really worked hard in gym class, so I finally realized my body wasn't meant to be smaller than it was.

Photographer: Kicka Witte