Crystal Renn: The Plus-Size Mystery

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Do you really care how much weight Crystal Renn loses?  Does her weight determine your self worth?  Those are questions that the plus size community should be asking itself.  A new friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that when it comes to modeling there is industry size and size acceptance size.  In the world of modeling industry is at max a size 12 for plus sizes.  Occasionally, you will see a size 14.  Now on the side of size acceptance it is common to see ladies size 16 and up.

Now to Crystal Renn.  After reading her book Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves I was one of the people who celebrate Crystal for embracing the body she should be in while battling an eating disorder.  In the back of my mind though I wondered if she had dealt with the psychological portion of the condition or was she so busy with working and being “The” plus-model, because the industry is not at this point going to allow more than one to be on top.  If the mental portion of the condition was not dealt with then what we see in the pictures in her latest photoshoot is no different from what she talked about in her book when she was exercising hours a day at multiple gyms.

“At sixteen, I signed a big modeling contract, moved to New York City, and started traveling around the world.  It is also when I developed a ferocious case of anorexia and exercise bulimia, and began to lose my hair, develop frequent bruises, and experience frequent heart palpitations.  And still my body refused to remain a size zero.  As my weight rebelled, my mania escalated.  I experimented with diet drugs and fainted between casting calls, slumping to the sidewalk of Madison Avenue. “

After reading that excerpt do you now see why Crystal Renn as a plus-size model was somewhat of a mystery in the first place.  Though she bared all in her book and it was a great look into what she went through I am going to assume the words in this book were penned no less than two years ago which is an eternity in the modeling world.  As you look at the before and after photos below from at least two years ago and photo taken in the last few weeks think to yourself honestly from then to now was she ever really plus-size?