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BIKINI BOTTOM?

Sports Illustrated Model Says Trolls Compared Her to SpongeBob in a Bikini

Critics made memes likening the reality star to the angular Nickelodeon character.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedJul 31, 2026, 2:41 PM EDT

UpdatedJul 31, 2026, 5:14 PM EDT

Updated Jul 31, 2026, 5:14 PM EDTPublished Jul 31, 2026, 2:41 PM EDT

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A Sports Illustrated swimwear model is rethinking her next runway appearance after trolls compared her physique to SpongeBob SquarePants.

Reality star Stassi Schroeder Clark, 38, walked the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit runway show on May 30 during Miami Swim Week.

On Tuesday, she told Page Six Radio that the cruel comments about her body following the strut down the catwalk left her feeling insecure.

“The first year was really amazing,” Schroeder said about her May 2025 debut. “The second year, the trolls got to me.”

The Vanderpump Rules alum was fired by Bravo in 2020 after Faith Stowers, who is Black, revealed that Schroeder and another cast member falsely reported her to the police.

After the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit account posted Schroeder’s runway appearance, for which she wore an orange triangle bikini, on Instagram in June, hundreds of comments criticized her figure.

“‘Rectangle,’ ‘SpongeBob SquarePants body,’” Schroeder quoted some of the commenters.

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Many detractors felt the House of Stassi star’s swimsuit was “unflattering” and did “not fit her body type.”

One of the top comments with over 9,000 likes read, “Love her but wrong suit. She would look great in a bikini with the lower bottoms.”

Another person commented, “Someone sabotaged her bathing suit fit.” The comment racked up over 4,500 likes.

The comments made Schroeder reconsider whether she would like to walk the runway again in 2027.

“I’m like, do I want to put myself through that again?” she said, although she confessed to agreeing with the commenters: “I am rectangle shaped.”

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Still, she says she felt “empowered” during the show.

“The atmosphere, the energy, it’s such a girl power vibe, and everyone’s there just lifting each other up,” she said.

Schroeder also received positive feedback, with many commenters amazed by her physique after giving birth twice.

She shares her two children, Hartford, 5, and Messer, 2, with her husband, Beau Clark, 46.

“I really love doing it. I’m so proud of it,“ Schroeder said about the runway show.

She added, “I’m just a little insecure right now.“

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But Schroeder noted that the SpongeBob SquarePants comments did not really “get to her,” unlike comments about her “hunchback.”

She previously revealed she gets Botox in her trapezius muscles to help relax her shoulders and elongate her neck.

Stassi was not the only woman on the famous runway to receive criticism after the show.

Olympic medalist Ilona Maher, too, responded to those who said her swimsuit was unflattering.

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She said that, although she understood some of the criticism, she had chosen the swimsuit herself and felt “hot” wearing it.

Maher posed a question for her followers: “Is it unflattering, or is it just, like, a bigger body existing in a suit?”

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Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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