She Sang, She Modeled, She Confirmed Up… Meet Katie Roeder of SZN4
In case your mother has ever informed you to look at one thing and been utterly proper about it, you already perceive how I ended up down this rabbit gap. My mother informed me I had to take a look at this lady on Netflix’s Constructing the Band, and I’m so glad I listened. As a result of plus dimension singer and mannequin Katie Roeder , Boston born, stuffed with soul, ridiculously proficient, is precisely the type of lady this area was constructed to have a good time.
Roeder is one quarter of SZN4, the group shaped on the Nicole Scherzinger-produced Netflix sequence Constructing the Band, and he or she simply wrapped the twelfth cease of her first-ever tour after we sat down collectively in Atlanta.
Twelve cities in and having the time of her life and actually, after spending time together with her, that tracks utterly. Plus dimension singer and mannequin Katie Roeder has the type of presence that makes you are feeling like you have got identified her for years inside about 4 minutes.
A Boston Woman Who By no means Wanted Permission
There’s something about rising up in a metropolis that takes no mess that follows you in every single place. Katie grew up in Malden and went to high school in Everett, each simply outdoors Boston, in a neighborhood with a wealthy Latino presence that permit her keep linked to her Hispanic roots even when most of her Hispanic household lived elsewhere.
“Boston is a really sports activities metropolis,” she informed me, laughing. “My brother loves all issues sports activities, so I used to be at all times watching all of the video games and going to all of the parades when all of the sports activities groups would win. And like, that was a lot enjoyable to only be in a metropolis that has a lot delight for the town itself.”
However greater than the sports activities delight, Boston gave her one thing else: the arrogance to easily not care what individuals suppose. “Everybody says that folks in Boston are massholes,” she stated. “And I really feel like that’s largely simply individuals not caring in any respect. And I feel that positively carried over. I’m simply going to do no matter I would like. It’s what it’s.”
That’s an vitality, and Katie Roeder has carried it onto each stage she has stepped on.
Musical Theater Child Turned Neo-Soul Artist
If you happen to thought Katie got here to singing in some sophisticated, winding method, suppose once more. Her dad and mom used to take her to area people theater, and her mother even went when she was pregnant together with her. By the point she was sufficiently old to look at a children’ manufacturing and see the women on stage, her thoughts was already made up.
“I noticed the women who had been in it afterwards, and I used to be like, I need to be like that once I develop up,” she shared. “And my dad and mom had been like, nice, let me put you into musical theater.”
She ran with it. However musical theater was solely the start. Her sound began pulling her elsewhere towards pop, R&B, neo-soul, and soul-forward music. And Adele, of all individuals, is who lit that fireplace.
“I feel Adele was, what actually made me need to sing for actual and never simply do musical theater,” Katie stated. “I used to be simply hooked on seeing Adele each time.”
After which there’s her grandmother. Her paternal grandmother, who handed away when Katie was in second grade, left her with what is perhaps probably the most significant artistic inheritance possible. “She informed my dad, actually, like, a number of the final phrases she ever stated had been ensure that Katie retains singing and that she by no means stops.”
She wears a hoop from that very same grandmother each single day. Once you perceive that, you perceive why Katie Roeder doesn’t take a single efficiency with no consideration.
Constructing the Band Modified Her Relationship With Her Voice
SZN4 accomplished by members Donzell, Aaliyah, and Cameron is a bunch that has been intentional about celebrating their individuality even whereas constructing one thing collectively. That particular artistic method has carried out one thing actual for Katie as an artist.
“My relationship with singing has positively modified in a great way as a result of I’m studying extra about myself via completely different songs that I’m singing and completely different songs that we’re writing as SZN4,” she defined.
“We’re additionally, as a bunch, placing an enormous emphasis on individuality as a result of the 4 of us are very completely different individuals who occur to come back collectively and have a very good mix, however we’re nonetheless our personal particular person individuals.”
She additionally stepped into songwriting for the primary time one thing that pushed her properly outdoors her consolation zone. “Songwriting is a really scary factor as a result of it’s very weak,” she stated. “However having my band to assist me via it has additionally been good.”
Their single “Nearer” was dropping that very same week we spoke, and he or she was already calling it her favourite to carry out on tour. She pointed to a line from Donzell’s verse “I solely want you affected person and never obligated” because the lyric that stops her each time. Woman has style. And that style is precisely what makes her such a compelling artist to observe proper now.
A Modeling Profession She By no means Deliberate For
Now, right here is the a part of Katie’s story that I like to speak about, as a result of it didn’t begin with a plan. It began with a viral TikTok.
Lizzo posted asking individuals to tackle a Karen Clark Sheard run, Katie did it, after which her telephone blew up whereas it was on silent as a result of Lizzo reacted to it on her personal web page.
“I had my telephone on silent, and everybody was blowing me up,” Katie recalled. “And I opened my telephone and I’m like, oh my gosh.”
Her first modeling company discovered her due to that video. She thought it was a rip-off. It was not. She flew to LA, did take a look at shoots, and realized she was genuinely good at it and genuinely liked it.
That led her, finally, to Nike. And never simply any Nike shoot… a full marketing campaign, on set with different plus dimension fashions, working for some of the recognizable manufacturers on the planet. The total-circle second was not misplaced on her.
“I used to work retail at Nike,” she stated, laughing. “So it was very full circle.”
On set, she was surrounded by different plus dimension fashions, and he or she made some extent of naming that as one thing significant. To be in that room, , working for a model that massive, that mattered.
Let’s Speak About What Is Truly Occurring within the Modeling Business
Right here is the a part of our dialog that I need to sit with for a second, as a result of it is necessary and it deserves to be stated plainly.
The modeling trade had a second. Plus dimension girls had been getting booked. Manufacturers had been making area. After which, quietly, that began to shift. Katie seen it and he or she shouldn’t be the one one.
“I feel it’s modified, however I feel it’s low-key reverting again, sadly,” she stated. “I feel once I first began, I had so many alternatives on a regular basis. And the previous like yr or two, I’ve nonetheless been working, however not almost as a lot, and I’m not the one one who’s been having that difficulty.”
She described a sample the place plus dimension fashions who may put on a dimension 16 via 20 had been being handed over in favor of fashions who put on an 8 or a ten. The demand for illustration has not gone anyplace. The buyer want has not disappeared.
Market analysis reveals that roughly 67% of ladies in the USA put on a dimension 14 or bigger. The market has not shrunk. The necessity has not gone away. A portion of the trade has merely determined, quietly, to look the opposite method.
However here’s what we all know: the viewers is watching. The buyer has a protracted reminiscence. And the ladies constructing careers on this area, like Katie, usually are not going anyplace.
Her Want Listing Is a Entire Temper
In case you had been questioning the place Katie desires to go subsequent together with her modeling profession, she didn’t hesitate.
“Savage X Fenty,” she stated. “They’re on my listing. Uncommon Magnificence is one. Fabletics. These are most likely my high three.”
After which, as a result of she is who she is, she went one additional: “I would like Rihanna to, one, come out with one other album. However then additionally, I would like her to do one other runway present. And so they deliver it again, and also you want a bunch to carry out, SZN4 is the one.”
Contemplate this our formal submission on their behalf. As a result of if anybody deserves that stage, Katie Roeder does.
Fashion, Nails, Rings and the Artwork of Being Comfy and Cute
Katie describes her private type as “L.A. dancer type, however make it slightly bit extra girly.” Low-rise pants, consolation as a non-negotiable, and at all times, at all times some type of nail design.
Her nails on the day we spoke had been silver – her tour nails, she known as them – a departure from her normal gold. She prefers gems, 3D components and full-on art work on her fingertips. And her rings? She has one on each finger, together with the one from her grandmother that she by no means takes off.
Her mother tried to get her into jewellery years in the past and he or she resisted. Then a birthday present of rings modified every little thing. Now she doesn’t go away house with out them.
It’s a type of small particulars that tells you numerous about who Katie truly is when the cameras usually are not rolling.
“I like to have art work on my nails at all times,” she stated. And actually, similar.
What She Is Leaving Behind
We closed our dialog the way in which all good ones ought to shut with legacy. I requested Katie what she desires to depart behind, and he or she took a breath and considered it the way in which you do when a query truly lands.
“I really feel just like the legacy I need to go away is certainly that you are able to do no matter you need to do,” she stated. “It doesn’t matter your dimension. I would like ladies who’re youthful than me, and even ladies who’re older than me, to see me and be like, if she’s doing that, I can do it, too. If I need to sing, I can sing. If I need to be in an area the place there’s not usually those who appear like me, I might be the individual to encourage different individuals.”
That reply is precisely why Katie is a lot greater than an important voice or a shocking marketing campaign. She is an entire reminder that the area belongs to you when you resolve it does.
What Is Coming in 2026
SZN4 has an album on the way in which. Roeder is continuous to mannequin, persevering with to develop her particular person artistry, and persevering with to indicate up in rooms that haven’t at all times made area for her.
She is doing it together with her grandmother’s ring on her finger, a Kehlani playlist operating within the background, and the type of quiet confidence that doesn’t want anybody’s permission to exist.
She sang her method onto our screens, modeled her method right into a Nike marketing campaign and is now writing songs which are going to make you are feeling one thing. In case you are not already following the journey of plus dimension singer and mannequin Katie Roeder, that is your signal. Go discover her – you’ll not remorse it.
Need to sustain with Katie Roeder? Comply with her on social media and stream SZN4’s music wherever you hear.
