{"id":854302,"date":"2026-08-13T23:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854302\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T23:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:18:16","slug":"dominique-elissa-pregnant-model-shocked-by-rude-remark-while-showing-off-baby-bump-in-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/854302\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominique Elissa: Pregnant model shocked by rude remark while showing off baby bump in public"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s supposed to be the happiest time of her life, but Dominique Elissa is grappling with an unexpected caveat of entering her third trimester of pregnancy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In a video, the Aussie model and influencer, who has 380,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok<\/a>, revealed she\u2019s been copping \u201cweird looks\u201d and comments from people since she started showing off her baby bump in public<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dominique Elissa was shocked by a stranger\u2019s rude comment about her exposed baby bump. \u00a0Tiktok\/@dominiquelissa<\/p>\n

She told nine.com.au that while she was filming content in Paddington, Sydney, a woman approached her and commented on what she was wearing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was wearing a leather set with a white singlet underneath and maybe a little bit of my bump showing on the\u00a0outside,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lady, probably in her late 60s, came up to me and just literally looked at me up and down, and she goes, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s very courageous of you to wear,\u2019 and just kept staring at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat left me feeling, obviously, quite uncomfortable.\u201d <\/p>\n

After the awkward encounter, she took to her social media to explain what had happened in an attempt to \u201cempower\u201d other pregnant women<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been told by multiple strangers that it\u2019s courageous that I\u2019m wearing this. I\u2019ve been looked up and down by men, and I\u2019m feeling judged,\u201d she says to the camera in her video, wearing the outfit in question. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not just going to sit at home in my trackpants while I\u2019m pregnant. I love getting dressed up, I love feeling good. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo this is a message to any of my [pregnant] women: wear your bump out, feel confident and who cares about other people.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not just going to sit at home in my trackpants while I\u2019m pregnant. I love getting dressed up, I love feeling good.\u201d\u00a0Instagram\/@dominiquelissa<\/p>\n

Elissa told nine.com.au she immediately felt self-conscious after the stranger\u2019s comment, and suddenly became aware of odd looks as she was leaving the area. <\/p>\n

\u201cI started noticing the looks I was getting on the street, which I feel like I don\u2019t usually take much notice of … because of that comment, as soon as we started taking photos, I felt really, really insecure about\u00a0it.\u201d <\/p>\n

She confessed that while she was capturing content, she started to \u201cjudge\u201d how she looked in the pictures. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis entire pregnancy, I\u2019ve been very body positive and embracing all the changes, the growing belly, the bigger thighs, everything that comes with\u00a0pregnancy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The model said people don\u2019t know what a real baby bump is supposed to look like due to the lack of representation in media. \u00a0Tiktok\/@Dominiquelissa<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had to fight that head noise and be like, \u2018You know what? That\u2019s one person\u2019s opinion, and I\u2019m going to dress in a way that feels right for me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

After sharing the video online, she copped more backlash, with some comments accusing her of making the story up for attention. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne person was like, \u2018This didn\u2019t happen to you. I\u2019m unfollowing you\u2019 \u2026 but why would I make this up?\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was really sad, because I was just trying to bring attention to being encouraging of women embracing their bump.\u201d <\/p>\n

Elissa also mentioned how disheartening she was seeing the backlash actress Anne Hathaway received after showing off her bump at a movie premiere<\/a> this week. <\/p>\n

Online, some trolls claimed Hathaway was \u2018faking\u2019 her bump for publicity, while others criticised her bellybutton or called her bump \u201cweird-looking\u201d. <\/p>\n

Elissa believes most people don\u2019t actually know what a real baby bump is supposed to look like, due to the lack of representation in media. <\/p>\n

\"Anne<\/p>\n

Anne Hathaway got her bump out on the red carpet this week.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there needs to be more empowerment of showing the\u00a0bump and not hiding it in the media,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite interesting. As a model, I\u2019ve lost all my work because I\u2019m pregnant, which I completely understand because a lot of the brands I shoot for aren\u2019t for made for pregnant\u00a0women.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then a lot of maternity brands will use a fake bump!\u201d <\/p>\n

She is now advocating for pregnant women to show off their bump and feel beautiful while doing it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to have the voices of people being like, \u2018You look\u00a0amazing\u2019 louder than the ones of the people writing \u2018hide your C-section scar\u2019, which I saw someone write.<\/p>\n

\u201cStuff like that is really sad to see.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s supposed to be the happiest time of her life, but Dominique Elissa is grappling with an unexpected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-854302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}