Hugging the Curve is a weekly column by ACE Certified personal trainer Kelly Turner dedicated to help you gain positive body image and a healthy outlook on diet and exercise in a world that says you will never be good enough.  Have you hugged your curves today?

In a recent interview with You magazine, singing superstar Rihanna spoke out about the fashion industry, and how she feels it is pressuring young girls to become model skinny.

Rihanna told the magazine:

“You shouldn’t be pressured into trying to be thin by the fashion industry, because they only want models that are like human mannequins. They know that if we see an outfit on a mannequin in a shop window we will love it and want to buy it whatever size we are.

That’s why they have size zero models – they want to sell clothes. You have to remember that it’s not practical or possible for an everyday woman to look like that. Being size zero is a career in itself so we shouldn’t try and be like them. It’s not realistic and it’s not healthy.”

Who says looking like a model is so great, anyway?

I had a friend that became a runway model, and actually did some pretty big shows for some pretty big designers.  It wasn’t her life’s goal to be a model, she actually wasn’t even really that into it, it kind of just fell into her lap, but she was 6′ and about 115-120 pounds, so she got quite a few jobs pretty quickly.

Lucky girl, right?

Despite being beautiful and one of the smartest girls I have ever met, she couldn’t get a date in high school because she was so tall it intimidated the boys.  She couldn’t find clothes that fit her tall and thin frame and got picked on and teased for being so skinny, which believe me, was not due to lack of eating.  She was an abnormally tall and thin girl, always was and probably always will be.

We were talking after her first runway show, and she told me how bizarre it is to be surrounded by girls even taller and thinner than she is.  When I pressed her what she meant by bizarre, thinking it was a relief for her not to be the tallest person in the room, she surprised me and said she felt like she was being ” exploited for her disability” and likened it to little people playing elves at Christmas time.  Obviously, being model-esque isn’t exactly a disability, but the proportions of a model don’t often happen naturally, yet in the modelling world, it’s the exclusive body type.

Models in real life don’t look like they do in their ads and pictures.  When around the ‘normal’ population, you can actually see the difference in proportions.  High fashion models tower over a crowd, all angular limbs and jutting bones.  Another friend of mine went to New York fashion week a few years ago, where the streets are just swarming with models.  She  said while they are all beautiful, she felt like she was surrounded by aliens or giant praying mantises.

Models are beautiful, their bodies are beautiful, but you don’t have to be the size of a model to be beautiful yourself.  Curves are beautiful.  Short is beautiful.  Muscles are beautiful.  Models have a body type, just like you have a body type.  Just like how a model can’t make herself a few inches shorter, you can’t make yourself anything your body is not meant to be.  Love what you have, and make what you have its best, but never, ever strive to look like something that is unhealthy for your body.

Photo: You Magazine