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Tess Holiday became the first size-22 individual to sign with a major modeling agency back in January. Since then, her life has been a whirlwind.

"My phone still hasn’t stopped ringing," she tells People. "It’s good, but it’s a lot!"

The 5’5" model, at 29 years old, has already landed major campaigns with Benefit Cosmetics and Torrid, but her career is just getting started.

"I just got back from London three weeks ago," she says.

"I’m going to New York this week, then next week I’m going to Montreal and New York again. Then Seattle, New Orleans and Vegas after that, all for work!"

Success has been a long time coming for Tess Holliday.

She first tried to get into plus-size modeling more than 14 years ago, but says no one was interested, and she received countless rejections.

"I got one call back," she recalls, in which the agency actually said, "’Look, you have a pretty face, but you’re too short and you’re too big.’"

It took a decade and a half, but she got the last laugh.

Watch the video above to see Tess talk more about her journey to the top, and the bullying and obstacles she overcame along the way …