14 DAY TRIAL // Crystal Renn is a very well known name in the fashion industry, though, these days, she’s rarely to be seen on the catwalk. After developing anorexia to remain a size 0, Renn realized her condition was serious and got professional help. She is now a size 12 and is one of the highest paid plus-size models in the industry – and using the exposure she’s getting to draw attention on how the industry discriminates against “fat” people, as People magazine can confirm.
Because of her own experience, which was far from an easy one, Renn is now doing her best to draw attention to the unhealthy practices the fashion industry encourages and even promotes. The truth is that, no matter how much the contrary is stated in the media, the industry does not allow for larger sized women on the catwalk. As such, the only career she can have in fashion is as a size-plus model, though she is far from “fat” or any other politically correct term one may use to describe a heavier person.
“We, as a culture, are fixated, and perhaps even in an unhealthy way, with dress size and the scale size,” Renn says in a recent interview trying to find an answer to the question “Is It Okay to Be Fat?” “Fat people are absolutely discriminated against. I know this because of the type of modeling I do… If it wasn’t, then I’d be all over the runways, every single runway, like everyone else,” the model says in response, thus leaving no room to doubt. Where fashion is concerned, it’s simply not ok to be fat, even if that means one size larger than the sizes 0-2 allowed on the catwalk.
However, size is not all that matters, Renn goes on to say. “It’s about the healthy eating habits that you have, and wherever your body falls. Whether that is actually a four or an 18, [doesn’t matter]. Having had an eating disorder, I was obsessed with numbers and percentages – how many minutes have I been on the treadmill, how many calories have I consumed today? When you start obsessing about numbers you get nowhere. It really is about, you know, finding balance and moderation within yourself and are you healthy,” the model explains.
This is not the first time that Renn underlines the importance of feeling good about oneself, which comes before the desire to attain the industry’s standards. Her book, released just a few months ago, “Hungry,” tells her story from a size 0 to becoming a plus-size model and finally finding that “balance” within herself. This is where beauty comes from, Renn believes.