I have to be honest with you. I was not just a journalist going into this interview. I was a fan. A full-on, grew-up-on-it, has-feelings-about-it fan. And when I tell you that sitting down with Kaycee Stroh, the woman behind Martha Cox in High School Musical, was a full-circle moment for me personally, I need you to understand the weight of that statement.
I am Jerri, and I have been dancing since I was three years old. Three. I grew up in dance studios the way some kids grew up on sports fields. Dance was my language, my outlet, my whole world.
And then High School Musical came along in 2006 and put a plus size girl on that cafeteria table and let her absolutely have her moment. No apologies. No qualifiers. Just joy.
That was the first time I saw someone on screen who made me feel like my presence in a dance space was not just tolerated but celebrated. Kaycee Stroh did not just inspire me to keep dancing. She inspired me to be louder in the room.
More confident. More unapologetically myself on the studio floor. So yeah. This interview meant something to me long before I ever hit record. Let us get into it.
Kaycee Stroh Did Not Just Play Martha. She Was Martha.
Here is something you might not know about that iconic cafeteria pop-and-lock moment, the one that lives rent free in my head to this day: it was not choreographed. Kaycee improvised it.
“No one’s ever choreographed this part for me,” she told director Kenny Ortega on set. His response? “It’s all you, girl. What you did in the audition was perfect. Stick with that.”
So when Kenny told her to jump on that table and let loose, Kaycee was simply, as she put it, “improv-ing for her life.” And the result became one of the most culturally significant moments in Disney Channel history, at least for those of us who needed to see it most.
@kaycstroh Please read: Happy 18th Birthday to the Movie that started it all, I will forever and always be grateful for the “big break” that I had been working so hard for BUT more importantly… Up until this point I had spent my whole life trying to prove that the “Status Quo” wasn’t always necessarily the Best. I grew up in a world that continually told me that I would never make it in the entertainment industry because I didn’t “fit the mold”. I wanted to prove that that was a lie and I wanted to show others that they too didn’t have to buy into that garbage! This moment was the vessel that finally helped the message I so desperately cared about actually reach the world, To reach all of you! Still to this day I am often told that this scene inspired people to dance or even helped them to be brave enough to chase their dreams! What an honor it is to be a part of your journey’s or even just a part of your childhood. Thank you for letting us in to your life, thank you for letting us be your safe place. I love you and appreciate every single one of you and your stories. Once a Wildcat Always a Wildcat! #hsm #highschoolmusical #marthacox #statusquo ♬ Stick to the Status Quo – High School Musical Cast & Disney
She describes Martha as a kindred spirit, someone timid in daily life but explosively confident the moment the music started. I heard that and felt it in my bones, because that was me too. Quiet in the hallway. Completely different the moment the music came on.
“I definitely went through my phases as a young girl of being a little bit more timid and a people pleaser,” Kaycee shared, “but whenever I danced or performed, it was like this whole other alter ego came out.”
That alter ego did not just change things for Kaycee. It changed things for every plus size girl watching from her living room, including a little girl named Jerri who would grow up to one day get to ask her about it directly.
The Criticism Was Real. So Was the Resilience.
Now here is the part nobody really talks about, and we think it is time.
When High School Musical aired, viewers actually wrote to Disney criticizing the casting of Kaycee Stroh. Letters calling her an “unhealthy” role model. A South Park episode that mocked her and assumed she must have diabetes based on nothing but how she looked. All of this directed at a 19-year-old girl who had spent her entire life dancing five hours a day.
“Little do you know,” she said plainly.
When I asked her about it, I will be honest, I was a little nervous to go there. Because that criticism was not just about Kaycee. It was about all of us. Every plus size girl who watched that movie and saw ourselves. Hearing that people tried to make her feel like her existence on that screen was wrong? It stung all over again.
But she did not let it bury her. Not because it did not hurt, because she is clear that it absolutely did. But because the other letters were flooding in too. Girls writing to say they almost gave up on their dreams until they saw Martha. Fans who went back to dance class because of her. People who, for the first time, felt like the screen was looking back at them.
“You have to focus on the positivity in life and the good,” Kaycee told me. “Healed people don’t hurt people. So that’s all their generational trauma. That’s a them problem, not a me problem.”
I wrote that down. Twice.
Research consistently backs up what Kaycee lived through. A study published in Body Image Journal found that exposure to diverse body representation in media is directly linked to improved body satisfaction among young viewers. Martha Cox was not just a character. She was a cultural intervention. And the people who tried to shut that down? They were simply on the wrong side of history.
Kaycee Stroh’s Self-Esteem Advocacy Is Not an Afterthought. It Is Her Life’s Work.
After Hollywood came the real work. Kaycee became a self-esteem advocate, and the reason why is both simple and deeply human.
She kept watching women tear themselves apart in front of their children.
“I’m not going swimming because I have to try on a swimsuit.” “I’m a size 12, so I’m buying a size 12.” Women so consumed by the number on a tag that they were sitting on the sidelines of their own lives, and their kids were watching every second of it.
This is the part that got me, because I have seen this play out in real time. The way body image and self-doubt pass from mothers to daughters like heirlooms nobody asked to inherit. Kaycee sees it too, and she has made it her mission to interrupt that cycle.
“Your kids aren’t gonna remember what size your swimsuit was,” she said. “They’re gonna remember mom playing in the pool with them and making memories.”
Her message on sizing is one I genuinely wish someone had handed me earlier in life: “Buy the bigger size if it looks beautiful. If you need to cut the tag out, cut the tag out. It matters how you feel and how great you look.”
She is not wrong, and the data backs her up. The fashion industry’s sizing is notoriously inconsistent across brands, meaning a number on a label tells you almost nothing useful. As noted by fashion researchers at the University of North Carolina, there is no standardized sizing system across retailers, making the tag number genuinely meaningless as a measure of anything. The only thing worth measuring is how you feel when you put it on. Full stop.
Her Fashion Philosophy Will Make You Want to Clean Out Your Closet
Kaycee has been a fashion girl since before it was a content category. She talks about her junior high self rocking a pink pencil skirt business suit with heels one day and going full Avril Lavigne with purple clip-in hair extensions the next. She is a self-described Gemini who picks a character with every outfit. I call that being a creative genius. She just calls it Tuesday.
And to all my Geminis reading this right now, you already understood every word of that. You have been picking a new character every morning before the rest of us even figured out our signature style. We see you. We love you. Keep confusing everyone.
But here is the part I really wanted plus size women to hear, because it is rare and it matters.
Kaycee does not wear crop tops or bodycon dresses. Not because she cannot or should not, but because they are simply not what make her feel most like herself.
“I feel the most confident when I’m wearing something that looks so flattering and I’m putting my best foot forward and people are focusing on my spirit and my personality and my face,” she told me.
And in the same breath, she made it clear that if YOU want to wear the crop top, you should absolutely wear the crop top, and she will be your loudest cheerleader while you do it.
“There’s not a right or wrong here,” she said. “There’s room for everyone. There’s space for everyone here.”
This is what inclusive fashion advocacy actually looks like in practice. Not a single prescribed way to dress a plus size body, but full permission to dress it however makes you feel the most like you.
Her fashion turning point came when she discovered Utah-based brands Ivy City Co. and Jessakae, which create inclusive, feminine designs that extend to plus sizes. She described searching online for mommy-and-me dresses with her daughters, only to find that plus sizes were simply not offered. The moment she found brands that actually included her was not just a shopping win. It was an emotional turning point.
“It was like a really big pivotal moment in my fashion where I felt included and where I felt like, I get to be pretty and in style and feminine.”
The plus size fashion market is one of the fastest-growing segments in the apparel industry, currently valued at over $288 billion globally according to a 2023 report by Allied Market Research. The demand has always existed. The industry is simply catching up to what plus size women have been asking for all along.
Her TikTok Era Is Proof That Joy Is a Career Move
Martha Cox opened the door, but Kaycee Stroh built her own house.
I said that to her in our conversation and she immediately announced she was trademarking it. Fair enough, Kaycee.
@kaycstroh All aboard the Double Dutch Bus🚌💥 Dc: @mollylong21 #doubledutchbus #mollylong ♬ original sound – mollylong
During the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world was sitting in the dark and scrolling for anything to feel human again, Kaycee showed up on TikTok with dances and color and laughter and said, we can have fun together. And people stayed.
She now has fans who have no idea she was ever in a Disney movie. They just know her as the woman who shows up on their feed and makes a bad day manageable.
“I just felt like the world needs a little bit of light in it,” she said. “We’re constantly bombarded with everything going on in politics and wars. Sometimes we need to take a brain break and we need to enjoy life and be present.”
Her current favorite TikTok trend is Molly Long’s Double Dutch Bus choreography, and she loves it for a reason that resonates deeply with anyone who grew up in a dance studio: it takes things back to actually feeling the music rather than chasing tricks and tumbling passes.
Real dancing. The kind that starts somewhere in your chest before it ever reaches your feet. Which, when you think about it, is exactly what Martha Cox was always doing on that cafeteria table.
What She Wants You to Know at the 20-Year Mark
If you grew up watching Martha Cox, you are an adult now. And Kaycee sees you.
As we wrapped up our conversation, I asked her what she wants the plus size women who grew up with Martha to know at this 20-year mark. And she flipped the entire thank-you dynamic on its head.
“I know it’s often reversed and they’re coming to me and they’re thanking me for the role that I’ve played in their journey,” she said. “But what they don’t realize is that through them showing up and telling me their stories and how Martha and I changed their perspective and their lives, you were sealing the deal for me too. You were really making my true, authentic confident self come through. I feel like we actually were on this journey together.”
I had to take a breath after that one.
And to every plus size woman right now, wherever she is in her confidence journey, Kaycee’s message is this:
“Don’t wait until you’re a certain size to buy new clothes. You deserve to feel beautiful and happy right now, exactly as you are. Wear the bright colors. Be the joy that walks into the room. It’s okay to take up space. You are worthy of love.”
Say it louder, Kaycee. We are listening.
The Bottom Line
Twenty years after a plus size girl jumped on a cafeteria table and changed what was possible on screen, Kaycee Stroh is still out here doing the work. Advocating for self-esteem. Dancing on TikTok. Helping plus size women find clothes that actually include them. And reminding us, with the kind of clarity that only comes from having lived it, that our worth has absolutely nothing to do with our waist.
Martha knew it. Kaycee always knew it.
And I know it too. Thanks in no small part to her.
Make sure to follow Kaycee Stroh on TikTok and Instagram! You deserve that moment.
