I just watched an interview on Fox News with Crystal Renn a plus size model.

She's 5'9" and used to weigh 98 pounds until she realized that was not a good place to be. Now at 5'9" she's a size 12 and healthy. But, the clothing industry considers her a plus size model.

No wonder we have screwed up body issues.

She also wrote a book called Hungry. I might have to get that. She wrote about the industry, her body issues and weight struggles.

I was just glad to see a model with some common sense, an actual shape, and who will eat more than one lettuce leaf a day.

Well, it's not like she would be up to the standards of your avatar! But seriously, there's room for a great variety of body sizes and types and lifestyles.

I think the modeling industry calling her a plus-size model is not the same thing as saying she is plus size. Just like "regular" models are not "regular" size either. I still don't like it.

Those are not my abs in the Avatar. My stomach and stretch marks, would send you screaming to the hills in fear it was contagious.

They are my dream abs though. That pic is an inspiration for me. Keeps me working, knowing I can have better than what I've got right now.

What I meant was, you don't really aspire to be size 12, and the industry knows that. I don't mean there's anything wrong with your goals, but that in calling that model plus-size, the industry is not so inconsistent with what people are thinking.

It makes me kind of sad when people try to change themselves to emulate a photo or what they see depicted by the media. Kind of like living life as an imitation, not as an authentic "me"...The models in the magazines, plus-sized or not, are airbrushed and photos taken in optimal conditions then photoshopped to become "ideals" that are completely unattainable. Same goes for photos in fitness magazines...

Kind of makes me sad...I don't aspire to live my life as an imitation of a photoshopped image. I just want to be the best "me" that I can be...

Kira

Kira, you are right about them being airbrushed. Here is this model on the cover of a magazine in 08, she doesn't look overweight and looks like normal model.



same model, different pic that shows her full figure.

Amazing, isn't it! I should develop glasses that let you appear airbrushed to those who wear them! Here -- put THESE on! I'd look AMAZING all the time!!!

Kira

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think she looks "full figured" or overweight in either picture. She looks like a perfectly normal, healthy-weight woman in the second picture and I wouldn't for one minute call her overweight or "plus sized" or full-figured. Or maybe I'm misinterpreting what you're saying?

The difference between the 2 pics is mad!!! The first one has her looking tiny whereas the second one emphasises how curvy her body is. Although she's not full figured like I am she is definitely full figured in comparison to other models.

I meant it seeing a full picture of her entire body, and less air brushed and more natural.

I think SoulSurvivor said I what I was trying to say. To me, she looks smaller in the magazine pictures, and there are other pictures from that magazine shoot (some are nude, so I won't post here), where she looks like a regular skinny model. She's being put out there as a plus sized model, but when put in a regular fashion magazine she looks airbrushed or posing to look much thinner.

I definitely look "plus size" in size 12 but I'm only 5'0". I wouldn't consider a person 5'9" who wears size 12 to be "plus size", but it's nice to see a model who doesn't look anorexic for a change. Crystal Renn is beautiful and a better role model for young women than the size 0s you usually see held up as ideals.

I read her book, *Hungry*. It was great. She freely admits that she is airbrushed in some shots. As long as she gets paid, she's OK with it. After all, she's a model trying to make a living, not a spokesperson for plus-sized women.

For fun, I took my measurements and compared them to hers. I'm almost her exact measurements (but 5" shorter) and I'm a size 10 -- sometimes an 8. I think a couture 12 (well, if there was such a thing - LOL) is not the same as a size 12 at the Gap.