Women We Love: Crystal Renn

Crystal Renn

"I got to my lowest point, when I couldn't go lower, and it was either, `I'm going to die and not accomplish the dream,' or, `I can become a plus-size model and keep the dream.'...I am healthy now, the healthiest I've ever been in my life — both physically and mentally."

Born June 18, 1986, Crystal Renn is the only plus size model who has appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. She has modeled for notable plus size clothing lines such as Lane Bryant, Evans and Torrid and has walked the runway for Vena Cava, Heatherette, Elena Miro and Jean-Paul Gaultier. She is also an author who co-wrote her first book Hungry in 2009 in which she delves into her life as a size 0 model, losing a third of her weight at the age of 14 to make a name for herself into the fashion industry. Now more successful with a better understanding of herself she explains, "I feel right at home, very much accepted and very happy."

Pictures of Crystal Renn: Then and Now

"I thought, 'I'll eat healthy and I'll just be a size zero like models... I dropped about 35lb in three months and I realized it was not going to be so easy. I had some weight to go. So that's when things took a more extreme turn. That's when the calories came down and the exercise went up and the absolute obsession took hold – of all parts of my life."

"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."

"It's about the healthy eating habits that you have, and wherever your body falls"

"I've always felt, in some ways, like an outsider... But that is the fashion industry. You know how that is. The creative one at the school, the outsider, the goth or the gay guy -- whatever it is, they always get made fun of. I feel like they all got together and moved to New York City and made the fashion industry."

"I'd like to see everyone take on the attitude that there are women of all different shapes and sizes as `the beauty ideal,' and that it's not one type or another. There are women who are naturally a size 2 — you can't forget them, and that's discrimination the other way... All women bring something different to the table and we have to appreciate them all."

"I believe there is a cycle to everything — Wall Street, the housing market, and modeling, too. Back in the Victorian days, it was all about a full figure, in the '50s, it was about the boobs, in the '80s it was shoulders and in the '90s it was waifs... It can only go up from here."

"People need to hear this story because it's their story... Women deal with this all the time, and I think most of them can relate to this story in some way."

"That shot — I knew this is my moment. I remember him saying, `We've got it,' and I remember thinking, `This is my time.' Everything I was working toward, taking a chance on becoming a plus-size model, following my dream, and now everything is happening in front of my eyes."

"I love my cheekbones. I highlight them... I also love my eyebrows. I have good thick healthy hair — and that shows how far I've come."