"Plus-sized model 'cried when asked to be cover model' "

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6. i think it's great. it's not about restricting the modeling world to healthy-weighted people.

health issues aside, it makes no sense not to have models that reflect the population. it's crazy to advertise clothing that looks great on thin women and then overweight women try to go shopping and it doesn't look good on them, if they can find it in their size at all. it makes far more sense to have overweight models advertise clothing for overweight customers.

second, the problem with anorexic models was that it had become the norm in the industry and the perceived ideal, leading many healthy women to have an unhealthy view of their normal-weighted body, and leading many women (both in the modeling industry and out) to try to lose an unhealthy amount of weight, to not eat properly, to purge, etc. the problem was not only including ultra-thin models on covers, but also *avoiding* models who were normal-weight because they "weren't thin enough".

unless the narratives about body shapes changes drastically, no one's going to look at this cover and say "i need to gain weight." with plus-sized women, there are issues around acceptance, and having a model like this on a cover of a major magazine helps with that -- which could not only help with the acceptance issue, but as a result actually help them get down to a more healthy weight.

if the modeling industry actually starts avoiding healthy-weight women in favor of plus-sized women and telling normal-weight women that they need to put on more weight, then we might have the beginnings of a problem. but i think we're a loooong way from that.