If there's one person who comes to mind when we think of body positivity, it's Iskra Lawrence, the beautifully curvy model who's always insisted that her photos don't get retouched. She's all about ~good vibes~, self love and being healthy—whatever healthy looks like for you. It took her a while to reach this point, though.
Recently, she posed nude for Women's Health UK's annual naked issue and spoke about her issues with body image growing up. "Before accepting mine, when I was 18, I spent four miserable years desperately trying to make my body into what I thought was 'perfect,'" she said. "I'd begun modeling at 13, but my tall, skinny size 8 frame [size 4 in the U.S.] started developing curves. I cut my daily calories to just 800 and was exercising until I passed out."
Those curves, she said, didn't go unnoticed by others in the industry. Once, Iskra recalled, a stylist even asked, "Why is this fat model here?"
Now, Iskra still thinks it's ridiculous that she's considered a "plus-size" model. "I think the term is so backwards," she says of the phrase plus-size. "It has negative connotations but applies to 60 percent of women."
Though it took the model time, Iskra is now confident in her own body. "I finally came to the realization that I was beautiful as I was; I didn't need to change, attitudes did," she said. Amen to that.
