Stassi Schroeder is getting candid about the insecurity she felt after trolls compared her to SpongeBob SquarePants following the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit show.
“The first year was really amazing,” Schroeder, 38, said on Page Six Radio on Tuesday, July 28, looking back on her past participation in the fashion show. “The second year, the trolls got to me.”
Schroeder then revealed that online critics called out her “rectangle” body and compared her to the sea-dwelling cartoon character. Though she joked that the trolls were “not wrong,” she admitted the comments made her question whether she would return to the event for a third year.
Schroeder made her runway debut at the SI Swim show in 2025. She walked the runway again in May alongside Alix Earle, Tiffany Haddish, Bethenny Frankel and more.
Despite feeling “just a little insecure” about the negative comments, the Vanderpump Rules alum said she enjoyed participating in the show.
“I love doing it, I feel so f***ing empowered, the girls are so nice,” she gushed. “The atmosphere, the energy, it’s such a girl power vibe and everyone’s there just lifting each other up. So, I really love doing it.”
The reality star also said she’s gotten “really good” at dealing with hate online.
“If you believe all of the positive stuff you read, that means you have to believe all the negative stuff you read,” she continued. “So, I just don’t believe anything. … One minute people love you, the next they hate you. It’s all so fluid, and it really doesn’t f***ing matter because people’s opinions are gonna change next week.”
Schroeder made her reality TV debut on season 8 of The Amazing Race. She also briefly appeared on Queen Bees before taking on a job as a waitress at SUR, the restaurant featured on VPR.
Though Schroeder was a fan-favorite on the reality show, she and Kristen Doute were fired after eight seasons due to a controversy with former costar Faith Stowers.
In addition to her reality TV fame, Schroeder has authored two books — Next Level Basic: The Definitive Basic Bitch Handbook in 2019 and Off With My Head in 2022 and You Can’t Have It All in 2024. She has also launched multiple podcasts and now stars in her own Hulu show, House of Stassi.
“Even when I started Vanderpump Rules, the goal was then to always do something even bigger after that,” she told TV Insider earlier this month. “Granted, Vanderpump Rules was huge. We didn’t even know how big it was. We still, I don’t think, understand how big it was or whatever, but I never thought it would be Vanderpump Rules or nothing. Anyone who goes on Bravo, they’re like, ‘Oh, I want to get a spinoff out of this.’ Everyone will tell you that. And so it was always like, ‘OK, what can I do after this?’”
In her personal life, Schroeder tied the knot with Beau Clark in 2020. The pair welcomed daughter Hartford in 2021, followed by son Messer in 2023.
House of Stassi is now streaming on Hulu.
