Supermodel Perspectives On Weight

Honestly, i think that curves are beautiful more than anything. There is nothing in my opinion, sexier than a woman that is athletic with ACTUAL curves instead of being stick skinny...lets get real here people.. this is 2007 and being stick skinny is just gross if ur trying to achieve it...im 5'5 and 134 lbs and i have been a swimmer and a runner my whole life...instead of starving yourself or beating yourself after eating like 2 brownies ( omg!) just be active and dont worry about calories so much..they say people who eat what they please...not really crazy though, are healthier..so keep that in mind.

First off she is underweight 18.5 is where the average weight begins. Plus if she was a little skinny in one area the sports illustrated didntn like its called air brush. What they do with every model and her chest because they dont have boobs because they are way to skinny.

OMG! you people need a life! stop judging people and the way they look.."omg that girl is way to skinny at 5'9" n 120 lbs!"..."n omg that is not healthy..she should weigh more" OMG! you people need lives. not just people on this stupid website but people who critize skinny people in general. get a life and stop judging people who just are naturally skinny and can't help it. i'm 5'6" and my weight goes anywhere between 95 and 100 lbs n i hear it all the time "oh i hate olivia shes too skinny shes definitely anorexic" --dont judge people like me--and i dont work out or exercise like at all! i cant help it this is just the way i am. i eat healthy and i LOVE muffins and ice cream and i cant help it im small i just have a tiny frame and high metabolism...so stop saying some girls are anorexic just cuz they're skinny! if they dont look sickly like they're gonna pass out then shut up about them, & stop being jealous & get a life!

dianne said:
I am 5'9 and 120 pounds. I have weighed between 120-125 pounds since high school. I have 5 children and after each pregnancy I returned back to my average weight. Even after the birth of twins. I have always struggled with gaining weight and continue to do so. It has always been a source of low esteem for me. Although I am always being told that I [...]

Angel

Ok, i just thought that i would say that yes we all need to be less judgemental. but, what your saying is that you have always struggled with gaining weight. well, people struggle with loosing weight. your being told that you look like a model, you should understand how lucky you are not to have to struggle with weight gain. and rather than being told that chubby or over weight people are pretty, they get told that they are fat. i would not complain if you are healthy, and wouldnt worry about people calling you name, as long as yuo know its not true, but, on the other side, people who are over weight have to deal with the fact that in society that are not attractive, even tho they are, people tell them they are not, and make them feel like they are not. and how would you feel if you were too big for the clothes. stop complaining that your too skiny, if that is just you, then it is just you, the most people would say is, dang she is tiny, but you most likely wouldnt be looked down upon considering how anorexic our would is, but if you couldnt fit into clothes because you are too big for them, you get looked down upon. and you feel bad about yourself.....?

and yes, every girl who is skinny is not anorexic, but there ARE people who are born over wieght, and are like that, and i dont caer what anyones says, there are, but they are judged as well. and dont get all but hurt OLLIE because im sure you look at people who are bogger than you and judge them. WE ALL DO AT ONE POINT OR ANOTHER. this world is so anorexic, and skinny driven that people who actually say, "She needs to gain weight" might not actaully be so world driven. SO, get over it!!!! Seriously.......

and i dont mean born over wieght, i mean someone who is big boned person and cant help it.

I've actually met Carolyn Murphy, and she has a very small frame, and is very lean and muscular, so I believe she could weigh 120 pounds. I'm 5'9" however, and she seemed a bit shorter than me...heels nowithstanding. Having met a lot of models at events, some of them definitely count their heels when it comes to their height, which makes a big difference when it comes to weight.

dear people: I am 5'11 and 174(ish) pounds.
My friend Karen is 6'1 and 130 pounds.
she wants curves- i want fewer-she wants to gain- i want to lose(just the luv handles!)
My genetics make me tall and full, big boned, curvacoius, whatever.
Her genetics make her tall and thin.(I know it's her genes because she eats like a pig, like the rest of her family, and not one of them is bigger than a size 6).
The point is, is that we are all built differently, and that we should not try to be who we aren't, but try to appreciate who we are. We, the people, the consumers of all this mass media, should not berate naturally skinny models just for being who they are. Nor should we endanger ourselves by being who we aren't.

And most importantly of all- we should look into ourselves to see why we prize so highly the words of a two-time soft-porn model.

Maybe I missed it, but I'm not seeing where the article says she's ever done any porn.
Even if she has, why should that make her opinion count any less than anyone else's? I'm calling BS on that, sorry.

Jill said:
dear people: I am 5'11 and 174(ish) pounds.
My friend Karen is 6'1 and 130 pounds.
she wants curves- i want fewer-she wants to gain- i want to lose(just the luv handles!)
My genetics make me tall and full, big boned, curvacoius, whatever.
Her genetics make her tall and thin.(I know it's her genes because she eats like a pig, like the[...]

Nic said:
Maybe I missed it, but I'm not seeing where the article says she's ever done any porn.
Even if she has, why should that make her opinion count any less than anyone else's? I'm calling BS on that, sorry.
[...]

I think she means the tv special of the making of the SI Swimsuit Cover. That is not really that different from soft porn.

As for why her opinions would count less, I guess I do take someone who sells her body in a sexual way for a living's opinions on body image with a huge grain of salt. If your whole self-esteem as well as livelihood is riding on your body, you'd do anything to keep it desirable. The livelihood thing is true for all models and artists, but I think with centerfolds and other people who depend only on a sexy image, there is more of their self-esteem involved.

It's different from porn in that it's not porn...unless I've missed something about American TV, there is no way that anything even approaching porn could get shown on mainstream TV for more than .4 seconds. (Remember the whole Janet Jackson "Holy crap, it's a tit" scandal?)
So that excuse doesn't fly, sorry, Jill.

Other than that, I agree with Jan's comment a lot more than I agree with the idea that anyone who has ever been on camera in a swimsuit is somehow not allowed to have an opinion on anything. That's how the first comment came off, and that's nothing more than misogynistic crap. If you disagree with someone's opinion, do so for an actual reason, like you did, Jan. Not just because they were on film in a small swimsuit and somehow that means "PORN O NOES!"

And no, I actually don't think she is any kind of spokesperson for "curvy women". Anyone who thinks Vicky's models are "curvy" needs to open their eyes. Breast implants do not equal real curves.

Jan said:
I think she means the tv special of the making of the SI Swimsuit Cover. That is not really that different from soft porn.[...]

I think the good thing about her opinion is that she manages to show other models that going from seriously underweight to just slightly underweight doesn't have to mean the end of a career, so that is a good thing. As for her being "curvy", I'm with you, Nic.

As for the porn issue, apparently on American tv you can show everything porn-like as long as you make the nipple covers really big. Cause Lil Kim could go out with a nipple sticker on her boob and even have it grabbed by Diana Ross on tv, but the Janet Jackson nipplegate shows that if the nipple cover is small enough to be confused with a real nipple, then it is porn.

People, some of you are really messed up. A BMI is proberly calculted by measuling your elbow breadth, wich is the bone of your elbow, go here http://www.womenfitness.net/bmi.htm

Knowing how big your bones are the key to calculating your proper BMI, at 5'9" she can be healthy while weighting 120. I'm 5'8" and my goal weight is 120, or slightly less. I have fairly small bones, and veins so I can still be healthy and weigh that much. Currently I'm 134 lb, but that is soon to change. I stil eat as much as I want to and I loose weight, I exersise and feel great even as I'm losing the pounds and inches.

Elbow breadth is just the width of one bone, and doesn't account for muscle. Two people with the same elbow breadth and height may have very different body fat percentages at the same weight.

According to the FDA and every other medical institution, the healthy weight range for an adult female that's 5'9" is anywhere from 125-168 lbs. Clearly that's a large range, so if you're more than that then you're overweight, underweight if less than.

I'm 5'9" myself, so I know this stuff by heart. I way 175 and though that's less than 10 lbs more than the typical healthy weight range, I'm still overweight. 5 lbs, 10 lbs, it's all the same. Muscle-tone or not, she's underweight, but for her profession she's at a healthy weight, so good on her for being able to be at a safe medium.

And I'd also like to add that the healthy weight ranges *can* vary by site, healthcare professional, or whoever, but generally they all report the same numbers. If you're in that foggy area where one site says it's one number and another site gives you a different number, make up you mind on which you want to be that day, underweight, healthy, or overweight.

And to reply to Vanessa...

Vanessa said:
I am 5'9" and 150 lbs and really only have muscles in a few places. I think I am overweight and want to be 130 lbs. I've been working on this for 2 years. Is this a reasonable goal?[...]

When I was 150 lbs I freaked out, I thought I was overweight too, but you're really not. You're mid-higher end healthy, so congrats! But having a goal of 130 is definitely reasonable. It lowers your weight to improve your self esteem without being unhealthy and underweight. You just have to be careful about how you're losing the weight. Working out and eating healthy is really the only way to lose weight and keep it off.

Lol, I know I probably sound like some doctor or something, but really I'm only a 20 year old chubby girl who's obsessed with her weight. ;)

I agree that 120 is on the skinny side for 5'9". If this model is naturally skinny, then good for her, but I know I would never be able to reach 120 without starving myself and losing muscle. I am 5'9", weigh 155, and am 22% body fat, which is in the "athletic" category for women. I'm also a size 6, which I think is pretty reasonable, and smaller than the average American woman. Sure, I'd like to lose 10 lbs, but I would NEVER try to go under 135. Plus I have womanly curves, I have long muscular legs, and wear a C-cup, so why would I want to lose my boobs and hips? I love looking like a real woman! :)

I would just like to point out that Carolyn Murphy is perfect the way she is. I'm five nine and 120 pounds and that's because I eat healthy and exercise and I look completely normal. Everyone should respect Carolyn for being so incredibly persistent in keeping her weight down. Why is it that everyone has to pick on super models for being skinny when they know full well that no one wants to watch a fatty parade down the runway or get various snapshots in a magazine? Its her J-O-B to be skinny, people! And she's good at it! Looking good is her forte and more power to her.

Seriously, if you have a problem with the way she looks, then I really don't want to know how down you are on yourselves. I'm pretty much 100 percent sure that since all of you aren't supermodels, you've been fighting some physical hate for yourselves for awhile. Be like Carolyn and do something about being such obese people, or maybe just... shut your mouth. Mmkay.

One of two things - Carolyn Murphy is either shorter than 5'9", or she weighs more than 120 lbs.

Why? Because she doesn't look like crap.

well i am short && skinny...i mean i would love to gain 10-15 pounds, but for some people it is very hard. I have a very hard time gaining weight, but my problem is i am too short to be a supermodel or anything else that would really appreciate body like mine. Unfortunately I am extremely too short i am 9 inches under the minimum height && a lot under the weight. I am 5 foot 0 inches && 93.5 pounds. If there is anyone out there who knows any agencies I could maybe find who recruit people like me please let me know...

Krissy said:
Why is it that everyone has to pick on super models for being skinny when they know full well that no one wants to watch a fatty parade down the runway or get various snapshots in a magazine?[...]

Right, because, as we all know, there are only two kinds of women in the entire universe: Walking skeletons, and big fat fatty mcfatasses!

And people wonder why us fat chicks have such resentment issues when everyone is convinced that any woman who's not medically underweight is a huge, disgusting cow. Utter madness.

She is underweight. I am 5' 7' and weight 100lbs or less and have 3 children and would like to gain a balance weight which is around 120-135 or more but have difficulty gaining . Lots of people who are naturally thin we tend to deem them as anorexic but that is not always the case. Just Like me they want to desperately gain a healthy body weight.

People are composed differently and built differently so it accounts for the difference in looks between two women of the same height and weight. Remember muscle weighs a LOT more than fat and is prettier and smaller, so one woman who is 5'9" and 150 lbs could look a lot smoother and slimmer and shapelier than another woman of her same age, height and weight who had a higher fat percentage in her body makeup. This one might weigh the same but look softer, jigglier, and fluffier - or she might have a small ribcage and a huge rack - there are a million and one different reasons why people with the same stats would look incredibly different from one another. Bottom line: work out, eat healthily, drink water -- and don't forget to exercise your mind and your compassion. Otherwise the rest was a waste anyway, because no one is beautiful if they're ignorant, mean, and selfish.

Shannon said:
120 is so underweight. 120 is underweight for my height 5'6 so its definitly underweight for 5'9. plus since her boobs are bigger than other models than some of her fat went there instead and if she works out alot some of that weight is from muscles.[...]

Lia said:
120 is not underweight for a person who is 5"6 it is a very normal weight. In fact to have a good figure at 5"6 you wouldn't want to be much over 120.

120lbs at 5'6" is BMI 19.4, which is underweight for normal people, but normal if you use the BMI definitions that were bumped down to suck up to skinny models.

And, yeah, if you want a good figure, you want to be as underweight as possible!! Good plan, Lia!

Lia!
Perhaps you are familiar with the great 1930's American actress "Bette" Davis. When Bette was a child she would come home from school crying from being bullied by the other children. The story goes that her mother told her, to paraphrase,"Don't feel bad Bette, the (fat) birds always pick on the best fruit."

What a lot of people aren't taking into perspective is frame size. Models have small frames. some woman have larger frames and can carry more weight and still look thin. BMI is a very bad measurement of healthy weight simply because frame size and muscle mass is not a factor. I am 5'11" and 140lbs. I have a small frame. If i talk to a nutritionist or a doctor, I would fall in a healthy weight range and still have weight to loose. Muscle also weighs more than fat. People need to worry about their one personal health and not concentrate so much on others.

Chicken Girl: So, according to you, I would be underweight. I'm 5'7 and my weight has been between 100 and 110 pounds for a while now. I have small bones, I have a very high metabolism. You can't just look at someone's height and weight to determine whether or not they are overweight.

I met Carolyn Murphy when she came to Australia a couple of years ago. What struck me was how naturally thin and petite she was. Tiny wrists and bones.

As a make up artist, I've worked with lots of models; some obviously work at losing weight (in healthy or unhealthy ways), very few have that fine bone structure of Carolyn Murphy.

I think for everyone, some things come easy and some things are hard. Some people are socially-inept, or can't save money, or maintain relationships or have trouble learning. We all have our difficulties.

It's awful that if your difficulty is your weight it's a very obvious, visible sign to the world. People you meet wouldn't ever know if you've got a massive credit card debt or addicted to prescription drugs. But, if you're double you're "recommended weight", no one can really miss that.

I think some size 'o' girls are hot, just like some size '14' girls. It's about embracing diversity in beauty. It's also about being healthy and being the best you.

It's also about feeling good about yourself. I've been feeling drab, put on a bit of weight and I'm always around these super-glam girls. An actress told me 2 days ago how she thought I was beautiful and looked like Scarlett Johansson.

That made me smile, get up the past 2 mornings to exercise, do my hair nicely instead of a messy bun, and think I am, like all women, worth it.

I'm not advocating obsessive vanity but it is so important to take pride in yourself, feel good and focus on what's individual and beautiful about you.

I used to aspire to be like a model when I was a teen. In those days, the supermodels were the likes of Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford and 'The Body' Elle MacPherson. They were not nearly as underweight as today's models and were a much healthier role model, albeit still on the slender side.

Back then, a USA size 4-8 was the norm for models.
Now it is, apparently a size 0-2.
Most are not naturally thin. Some are, but most keep to very strict diets to keep their weight down.

I am now 32, and I had anorexia for 10 years on and off, for myriad reasons, but part of it was looking at these perfect looking models in magazines and longing to be like them because I had the height (5'10) and was considered attractive.

Now there is all this pressure and a USA size 6 (uk size 10) seems to be almost fat in comparison to the new smaller sizes.

In fact, I have gone from 140 ibs to 128, with a goal of 124 partly because of this sense of the body being so very important... one can come to forget that it is the insides that count, not the temporary shell.

I exercise every day for 45 minutes... I still treat myself sometimes, but yeah... I am so glad the models were not as thin when I was a teenager.

Is being skinny a crime? I am naturally skinny and people call me anorexic. I am 5'4'' and weigh 97 pounds. It seems as though the media wants large people to be waif-like, and then skinny people are portrayed as stupid and anorexic.

I HATE THIS SO MUCH! I mean, you guys are all like, pssh! They should all weigh more or less or whatever. Does it really even matter? -sigh-

I'm 5'6" and I weigh 106.5. No I'm not anorexic, I'm not a model, I'm just 'blessed' or 'cursed' with one of those super-high metabolisms.

I just wanna say, you think FAT people are made fun of? My gosh, my whole life I've only ever had people asking me if I diet or if I'm anorexic, and how my clothes don't fit or whatever. and people think it's a compliment when they make skinny jokes at me.

I don't appreciate being treated more like a skeleton and less like a person my whole life. Yeah, so 'fat' people might be made fun of, but there's still so many people out there saying, "That's not fat! that's beautiful!" and then people like me are just frowned upon, people hating us because we're skinny and bad rolemodels and we 'don't eat' and we should 'fat up.'

Pssh. Like I haven't been trying. I'd like normal body weight please. But you can't order that online, can you?

--

But, onto her, does it really matter if she's 'underweight or overweight to due the BMI index?' BMI indexes don't include metabolism, lifestyle, diet, exercise. No, they go off of the average. You don't have to be average to be beautiful, and that goes for both under AND overweight people.

Can't we stop nitpicking 'oh she's so fat! she's so skinny!' and just.. 'get along?'

I'm 5'8ish and i only weigh around 109.
i eat pizza every day and fast food at least 3 times a week.
some people are just naturally skinny.

okay,..I am 5'7.5 -5'8 and I weigh 135, so that said, Iam not "skinny" i am normal, infact my thighs are heavy and i have an ass, i have a think torso, and i cant count my ribs unless i really suck in my stomach. I don't think weight has anything to do with body mass index....you cant just measure yourself r judge someone simply by how much they weigh,....

think-thin*

blah blah blah... underweight underweight... lol you girls are just jealous for models because they're slim , if you're fat and aren't so lucky to have small bones and good genes to be slim forever it doesn't mean that girls meant to be slim are underweight and look anorexic , everyone who call them anorexic are fat and jealous.
kmi factor is just a factor you can't apply it on all the women around the world , because some of us may have small bones and good genes , and thanks to them we can be slim all the time no matter how much and what we eat. if i was a doctor i would consider kmi of 16 normal , i have seen many girls that are in the "normal" kmi of 18- 24.9 and look so fat that you think that they really need to do something about a diet or get some exercise.

sorry that i am always replying but i read more and more comments of your.
think of that , not everyone are meant to be models , you just must meet some requirements to get some jobs , like you have to be smart to be a doctor , so you need to be tall and slim to be a model , tall slim and curvy but fit to be lingerie or bikini model , even more slim and taller to be catwalk model , like you have to be fit athletic , strong to be sportsman , to have a good voice to be a singer and so on. just there are some requirements for all of the jobs. and you can put some efforts to meet that requirements , but some of the girls just do not understand that it is not up to them , it is too hard for them to meet some of the standarts like being slim and then they diet and get anorexic , you just need to do everything upon your own abilities , health and so on...

i think models are awsome

Her BMI is in teh underweight section, however if you have very little muscle weight on you, you might be a healthy slim weight at that weight. if you are a gym bunny and have a few kilo of healthy weight on a strong back and legs, the 120 weight would be ridiculous.
Given she may manage to be healthy at 120 for her build and height, is one thing. it certainly beats being obese.
however for her to go on about how she is now so 'curvy' and her husband and her adjusting to all the curves, and for her to not feel reasonably skinny still is quite weird.
it may be at first she was a skinny fat person, someone with no muscle left after starving as a super model, then fat comes on and even if it is tiny bits it kind of sags.
Soon some tiny muscles start to make this a nicer body, which i am sure she has aimed for.

I'm 5'10 & 132 pounds & my BMI is 18.9.
I've been told I need to gain weight because I lost my appetite due to depression & in return lost 9 pounds. I feel okay where I am now, but my doctor told me that I should weigh 138-140.
I don't really think I need to since before I was 135 & I felt fine that way.