The Body of a Real Woman: Crystal Renn Sizzles for Look

Industry’s best selling plus-size model, Crystal Renn, is featured in the pages of British magazine Look, modeling High Street clothing and talking about labeling, modeling and being once told she was too “fat.”

As we also reported on several past occasions, Renn battled severe anorexia back in her size 0 days. One day she just realized modeling wasn’t worth killing herself over.

Since the fashion industry holds size 0 as norm (which would be “average” in real life), Renn’s tiny frame of 8-10 (she’s a 12 size at her heaviest) is considered a “plus size.”

Aside from rocking some pretty gorgeous outfits for Look, Renn also recalls how she came to realize she was virtually killing herself for her career in modeling.

At the time, the idea that she could be a model even if she wasn’t all skin and bones hadn’t occurred to her.

“When I was told I need to lose 10in off my hips, I decided to go on a diet and soon lost 35lbs,” the model recalls. She didn’t stop here with her effort to be skinny, though.

“But then my weight plateaued, so I began exercising for up to eight hours a day, eating only vegetables and drinking large quantities of Diet Coke,” Renn explains.

One night, after doing several laps in a freezing pool after not having eaten almost anything all day, she realized she couldn’t possibly live like this for much longer.

Today, Crystal is trying to send out a message to all women out there that size only matters if they want it to. Beauty knows no size or body shape, and women should let no one tell them differently.

In her bid to challenge conventions and, most importantly, the rigid rules applicable in the fashion industry, she’s also shunning the “plus-size” label.

“Other people care a lot more about my weight than I do. I just want to live my life,” she says, stressing the time has come for the industry to move away from the obsession with women’s weight.

“Let’s get rid of straight size and plus size. It’s bull[expletive]. Just say model. Full stop,” Crystal adds.