So, unless you have been under a rock for the past week or so you have heard about, and probably seen, the latest pictures of plus size model Crystal Renn.  If you haven’t – here they are.

Crystal Renn Fashion for Passion

She does look noticeably skinnier in these pictures.  Check out this image from V Magazine, she looks significantly curvier here.

Crystal Renn V Magazine

So, the big controversy is “is Crystal still a plus size model?”  “Is she relapsing into anorexia?”  “Is she turning her back on her plus size fans?”

While I am pretty sure her weight gain/loss is really none of our business, she sat down with Glamour Magazine to discuss body image, the blatant photoshopping and more.  Check out these un-edited images from the same shoot.  Wow!!  She looks amazing AND like her normal, curvier self!!

Crystal Renn Un-Photoshopped

I recommend clicking over to Glamour and checking out the interview.  It says a lot about this industry.    Here is a little snippet from the interview:

Readers of Glamour know Crystal and her story well: her years of anorexia, her return to good health—and her fame and success as a “plus-size” model. We love Crystal and put her on the cover two months ago. So when I saw headlines cropping up last week criticizing her for losing weight (“A Big Fat Lie?” read one, in the New York Post), I felt for her. But frankly, when I saw the pictures they referred to, I was also worried. She’d already been slimmer when we photographed her for the cover than she had been four months earlier (read about that here), but last week, in those photos, she looked slimmer still. Women were concerned. “I just genuinely wonder if she is becoming ill again,” posted one commenter on jezebel.com. “Eating disorders are hard to get over.”

In the heat of all this, Crystal stopped by the office to talk. First (and best) things first: She’s NOT as skinny as she looks in those pictures; she looks like a healthy, average-size young woman. But she was upset. So what’s the deal?

GLAMOUR: Let’s talk about the pictures that ran of you last week. You look thinner than we’re used to seeing. But you say that when you saw those photos yourself, you gasped. Why?

CRYSTAL RENN: Well, I was shocked. When I saw the pictures, I think I was silent for a good five minutes, staring with my mouth open. I don’t know what was done to those photos or who did it, but they look retouched to me. And listen, everybody retouches, but don’t make me into something I’m not. [Reached for comment, photographer Nicholas Routzen explained that Crystal looks the way she does because the photos were “…taken from a higher angle with a wider lens.” But he also added, “I shaped her…I did nothing that I wouldn’t do to anyone. I’m paid to make women look beautiful.”]…

…

CRYSTAL RENN: I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been. You know, I just started introducing exercise back in my life—it took me seven years to be ready to go back to the gym because I exercised in such an extreme way during my eating disorder. I’m hiking and doing yoga, and it’s very light, but I feel fantastic. I’m sure some people might say, “Why are you exercising? Go eat a cheeseburger!” but I couldn’t be more proud of myself.

But even so, I’m a size 10. I’m 5’9”, so it might look different on me than if I were 5’2”, but everyone’s a different size 10. And I’m about 50-55 pounds heavier than my lowest weight as a straight-size model. Back then, you could see ribs everywhere. My legs, not only did they not touch, I mean there was nothing to grab. It was just skin and bone. And that goes for my arms as well. Thank God I don’t look anything like that now.

GLAMOUR: You told me that your worry was that girls would look at those thin-looking pictures of you and think that you were glamorizing extreme skinniness.

CRYSTAL RENN: Yes. That was a huge fear for me. I thought, “People are going to think that I’m sick—and maybe a girl who’s suffering from an eating disorder sees a picture like this and gives up hope.” People who have followed my story and heard my voice might think I’ve turned my back on that, and that it’s only beautiful to be thin. They’re not going to know where I stand right now, and I understand that. Because if I were in their shoes looking at this picture, I would be disturbed. I would absolutely be disturbed.

GLAMOUR: What would your message be, then, to that girl looking at this picture?

CRYSTAL RENN: I would tell her: I don’t look like that. I absolutely do believe in beauty at every size. And I’d tell her you can’t look at every image you see in this industry and say, “That’s exactly how that person looks,” because they don’t necessarily look like that. I mean, there is extreme retouching. There is amazing, very expensive clothing that is cut just right to flatter the body. People have trainers and go to great lengths for their bodies. And for that girl who’s thinking she has to be so thin to be accepted? You don’t. It’s not true. I starved myself to be successful, when in fact my real success only came when I became more confident.

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Tags: crystal, Crystal Renn, glamour, plus size, plus size model