Model accused of 'fat shaming' her size 16 best friend hits back

A size 6 model has hit back at critics who accused her of 'fat shaming' her size-16 best friend when she posted a photo of the two of them online.

Georgia Gibbs, 21, says she was heartbroken by the backlash she copped after innocently posting the image online of her with best friend Kate Wasley, who is also a model.

The photo showed the pair embracing during a night out on a boat in the Sydney harbour.

However after the photo was reposted on Instagram, people started accusing Gibbs of photoshopping the image to make herself look thinner while making Wasley, who is a size 16, look bigger.

But it was one comment that really got to Gibbs, she says, which read, "What kind of friend are you?".

"It broke my heart because Kate and I are best friends why would I do that?" Gibbs writes in an emotional follow-up post on Instagram. 

"The fact that a simple picture of two people together went so viral purely because of their body types shocked me," she adds.

But the two women, both from Perth, have since turned the negative experience into a positive. The trolling prompted them to create a new Instagram account celebrating positive body image and that there is "no standard size for the modern woman".

The account @any.body.co has already garnered almost 100,000 followers since it launched a week ago. It was created "because no one should have to deal with that and it shouldn't even be acknowledged," Gibbs said.

"All I see here is two women.. not one "skinny" woman and one "curvy" woman, stop comparing everyone to each other and accept every person as beautiful in their own right," she added.

The women have been posting photos of themselves together alongside inspirational quotes and captions reminding women to celebrate positive body image and friendship.