Fat, feminism and fear of Instagram: Sofia Hydman's superb gifs

“Chubby, confident girls are my favourite thing to draw. There’s too many skinny bitches out there already,” says Sofia Hydman. Well, her passion for the curvaceous is certainly clear in her work: gifs that delight in the lines and bulges of a larger woman’s form.

By day, Sofia works as an art director at New York ad agency Anomaly. However, she felt that outside of the nine-to-five she needed another outlet for her creativity. “I needed a project where I could call all the shots, so I created one for myself,” she explains. “I work with my gifs at home, late nights after work or during the weekends. I sit on my bed, crooked like a cheese doodle, with my Wacom and Mac. Preferably my girls are nude. I also have a thing for sad boys. I don’t know why I like it when guys cry, I just do, so I make them. Literally.”

Sofia draws her inspiration from Instagram, but while this feeds her creativity, she also finds it a worrying spiral. “I do spend time thinking about what will gain most likes on Instagram. I haven’t cracked the code yet so until I do I will continue to draw whatever I feel like in the moment of inspiration. I try to stay away from using too much black though, in my case it gains less likes,” she says. “I follow a bunch of super talented people and my biggest drive is jealousy.”