Bullied 10-year-old Ify Ufele debuts her own plus-size clothing line at New York Fashion Week

Egypt Ify Ufele was bullied in school for her size. At a time, she got stabbed with a pencil. But Ify was determined to rise above it all, so she pulled out her grandma’s sewing machine and got to work on what soon became “Chubiline,” which she describes as “bringing Africa to America, one design at a time.”

The bullying made her focus on her passion, fashion. She quickly decided to design clothes and sew them herself. Her clothing line, Chubiiline, features fashions for men, women and children of all sizes. 

This season she made her debut at New York Fashion Week with plus size styles making her the only child designer to dress plus size models. “I turned negative attention into positive attention,” she says.