Plus-size model and former ANTM contestant Whitney Thompson is angry. “I applaud Vogue for having a shape issue,” she says, “but screw Vogue for not having shapes in every issue.”
In an incredibly candid interview with writer Sunny Gold, Whitney dishes about fashion, sample sizes, body image and eating disorders.
Whitney claims that “models get treated like crap.” And notes: “I was a straight-size model growing up in high school, and my hips were always one inch too big — and, yeah, you have 45-year-old men saying, ‘You’re too fat.’ You’re a teenage girl. It’s really disgusting. It’s an awful industry and, yeah, there is no soul in modeling.”
She also says of the plus-size model “moment”:
It’s infuriating because we have to be excited, we have to be thrilled that there’s one issue that has girls who eat. Great! But it should be in every issue.
While Whitney herself never had an eating disorder, she saw the ravages modeling can have on a young woman’s body and eating habits first hand.
I lived in a model apartment with all straight [size] models. One of the girls was on the lemonade cleanse for, I think, three weeks and her skin broke out all over in boils. But she was working in Paris every weekend and that’s all that mattered to her. And does the agency say anything? They’re not worried she’s too skinny, they’re worried she looks nasty because she has boils.
The upside is that Whitney doesn’t just talk the talk: She’s a spokesperson for the National Eating Disorders Association, visits college campuses to talk about having a healthy body image, and posed nude to promote Love Your Body day.
The downside, of course, is that she may not land very many magazine spreads or fashion campaigns after this interview. She’s done Torrid and Faith 21, but those aren’t exactly high fashion. Although it seems that doesn’t bother her:
I’d rather be outspoken than the Chanel girl, you know?
First Plus-Size ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Winner Speaks Out About Body Image [HuffPo]
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