I don't like to use the words 'real women,' honestly. I like to use the word 'woman.' And I say that because there are so many women out there who are naturally thin or are naturally curvy, and I think when we start putting a label on the type of woman, it gets misconstrued and starts to offend people.
Does any woman really just come in and say, 'I'm a plus-size woman?' Maybe as a defense mechanism or maybe as a way to kind of cope with fitting into society but... I just think it's divisive.
Do I sometimes wish I were thinner? God, in the old days, absolutely I did, but now I feel that to lose weight would be disloyal to myself.
I think the word 'plus-sized' is so divisive to women.
I always felt second best. I was never the prettiest, never the skinniest, never the fastest in my sports. Never the smartest, because I have dyslexia. Then, all of a sudden, people were like, 'You're gorgeous.' And I was like, 'What?'
I am just like any other woman, and I think I am the 'fattest woman alive' - but it is really about how you handle your situation.
As women gain weight, they start judging themselves. But who cares! Embrace what you have. Say, 'Belly, you might be poking out today, but I'm going to choose to love you and nurture you.'
I love my hourglass figure.
Back in Nebraska, I was known as the fat model - the girl who was pretty for a big girl. My body, like my confidence, has been picked apart, manipulated, and controlled by others who didn't necessarily understand it.
Words have power, and if you are going to use your words negatively, then that is exactly what is going to happen in your life.
My mom's parents were farmers, so every summer, my sisters and I would help out, hauling pipe and pulling maggots off the corn. We hated it, but it taught me the meaning of good hard work.
This confidence is not something that happens overnight. I have been working on it for a long time. I look in the mirror and do affirmations: 'You are bold. You are brilliant. You are beautiful.' If my lower pooch is really popping out that day, I look at it and say, 'Pooch, you are cute!'
My mom is the most positive person. She has always had a smile on her face no matter what came her way. After seeing that, I'm not going to let a little cellulite get in the way of my happiness!
One thing my mother did is that she never looked in the mirror and said, 'I'm so fat,'or 'I'm so ugly. I need to go on a diet.' Projecting that onto yourself is only going to make your daughter or son think that of themselves. Because they're a product of you.
The sum total of what I learned about African American culture in school was Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the Underground Railroad. This was more than my mom knew; she didn't even see a black person in real life until she was 18 years old.
We need to work together to redefine the global image of beauty and continue to push for a more inclusive world.
I put myself out there, trying to prove that beauty is beyond size. It was risky, sure, but what I risked in terms of personal pride was nothing in comparison to what I was rewarded in terms of personal fulfillment.
I'm a confident woman with thick skin, and as a model in the public eye, I'm conditioned to accept criticism.
For so long, I have been an outsider because of my size. And I think that fashion has always, in some way, catered to celebrities or to a thinner idealistic model.
There are some days I feel fat. I'm not convinced there's going to be a moment where every woman in the world wakes up and feels like a million dollars. So, what I want to do is give women the tools that will help when those moments come up. Sometimes it can be as easy as telling yourself that you are beautiful.
