Crystal Renn Talks Body Image in NOW PSA
Coco Rocha isn't the only catwalker addressing body issues.
Ford + models Crystal Renn, Kate Dillon, and Amy Lemons are opening up about body image and their battles with eating disorders as part of the National Organization for Women (NOW) "Let's Talk About It" campaign in conjunction with National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.
The campaign invites the public to post video essays discussing self-confidence and weight issues in an effort to create a network of support, and the beauties are kicking off the discussion with their own confessionals.
"Anorexia, for me, was torture," says Renn, whose size now falls between a plus (generally size 10 and up) and a straight (approximately 33-24-35-inch measurements).
"I remember looking in the mirror. I didn't see who I was. I would grab my ribs. I would count the veins in my arms. Are my legs touching? These are the things that were in my mind."
Renn—who recently spoke out about her fluctuating weight and the pressure she feels from being labeled a plus-size model—says weight gain brought her back to life.
"As my body was evolving and changing, becoming bigger in my recovery, I relished every moment of it, because I knew those pounds meant health for me, and I knew they meant happiness for me," she says in her video blog.
"It was a time where I was rediscovering myself, rediscovering my body, trying to understand who I am and what I am in this shell. And I wanted to love it and be comfortable with it and to show it … I'm an individual. I don't have to conform to any society standards set for me. I need to be me."
Dillon, meanwhile, reveals she began starving herself at age 12 after being taunted with chants of "Overweight Kate" by her classmates.
"Oddly enough, it was being in the fashion industry that kind of made me want to stop starving myself, because I remember I was doing Fashion Week in Paris and I had a terrible stomach flu and I had just recovered," she recalls.
"I was going to the fashion shows and I ran into a fashion editor who said, 'Ah, you look fantastic!' And I remember thinking, I've been having a severe intestinal virus for 10 days and this is what it takes to look fabulous in the fashion industry.
"And that was sort of the beginning of the end for me. I didn't want to continue to be part of an illusion. Here I was killing myself to maintain this illusion, and I was foisting that illusion on other women. That wasn't the impact that I ultimately wanted to have on the world."
The NOW campaign officially begins February 21. Start sharing!
