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Plus-Size Model Comes Out On Top!
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Posted June 5, 2008 Whitney Thompson became the first plus-size model to win “America’s Next Top Model” last week.
Thompson, 20, is a UK size 12. She’s not fat by any means; she’s slimmer than the 34% of Americans older than 20 who are obese.
“I’ve stood there in the middle of an agency with everyone pointing at me and saying ‘four more inches off the hips would be great,’”
Though compared to the painfully thin models dominating catwalks around the world, she’s big, and she’s considered plus-size in the modeling industry.
Though, this information is not news to Whitney.
“I’ve stood there in the middle of an agency with everyone pointing at me and saying ‘four more inches off the hips would be great,’” Thompson said. “I don’t recommend any girl putting herself through that, but I did and I stand here unchanged, physically.
“Right before I left to do the first episode in L.A., I was with one of my best friends and she said, ‘You’re fat. You are not going to make it in this competition,’” she continued. “So every week that I made it, I was like, ‘Ha!’ Obviously, we’re not friends anymore.”
Thompson is the latest plus-size woman to shake things up in the modelling industry. Our own Chloe Marshall became the first plus-size woman to make the finals of the Miss England competition.
“I know I will stand out from them, but in a good way,” the 5-foot-10-inch tall 16-year-old said in March. “I want to bring plus sizes back, and I want to show teenagers that you can be beautiful whatever size you are.”
Tyra Banks, former catwalk queen and the host of “America’s Next Top Model,” set to stamp out the “flesh equals failure” mentality after tabloids dubbed her “America’s Next Top Waddle”.
There is no doubt the industry is changing. Starting in September, the British Fashion Council will require models to present a medical certificate of good health. And in 2006, Spain banned models with a body mass index of less than 18 from its catwalks.
I’m very impressed and quite surprised that this girl won the series. As we know, size 12 and a tall girl is still very slim, but it certainly is a step in the right direction towards the media perhaps realising that skinnier isn’t always “better”. If even one model who starves herself daily, now lets herself eat healthily due to this competition result, then that would be a wonderful thing.