Dallas-area model shuts down body shamer on flight

A Dallas-area plus size model's Facebook video of her confronting a man on a flight after she felt shamed for her weight has gone viral.

Natalie Hage promotes body positivity on Instagram to more than 100,000 followers.

"I just don't think it's fair to not be able to live your life because you look a certain way," Hage said.

Hage said her confidence was tested Thursday after she boarded a flight from DFW to L.A. She tells us she paid extra for a seat with leg room so she could fly comfortably, but Hage said it apparently still didn't sit will with the man next to her.

"I can hear him just audibly upset," she said.

She says his huffing and puffing continued. Then, she saw a conversation over text on his phone. She snapped a picture of his private text messages and posted them online. Someone texted him, "Hopefully she didn't have any Mexican food." He responded, "I think she ate a Mexican," followed by, "If the news reports [an airbus] leaving a runway without rotating, that would be my flight."

"I was crumpled like this. I literally was like this the whole flight with my water bottle and my phone just trying to be as small as I could just to not dare to be in his way. And then I started getting more angry," Hage said.

Hage tweeted American Airlines, "I paid for this seat and now I'm sitting next to someone harassing me."

The airline replied by telling her to speak to a flight attendant. Hage says the flight was sold out with no open seats. So she decided to confront the man and recorded their conversation. His face isn't shown and his identity wasn't revealed. The video from the plane went viral. It has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.

Hage said that interaction was dehumanizing and people should not feel unworthy because of their appearance.

"You're constantly being told you're not good enough as you are. You need makeup, you need the cool clothes and you need to lose ten pounds and you need to wear these heels and tan and get your nails done to be worth anything, and it's just simply not true."

We do not know who the man is in the video so we were unable to contact him for comment.