Crystal Renn: I Lived On Sugar-Free Jell-O And Diet Coke (PHOTOS)

Crystal Renn has become the world's most successful plus-size model, but she's often told by editors and designers that she doesn't look all that big. "It's simply bizarre that 'normal' is the new overweight," she wrote in her memoir Hungry. "We've seen that super-skinny women can be as unhappy as the fattest fat girl. We know how awful it is to obsess about every calorie. We've just opted not to make ourselves crazy."

Renn was the inspiration behind V Magazine's "Size Issue," which hits newsstands today and in which she appears.

"[The issue] is going to be a bit hard on the eyes for a lot of fashion people," Stephen Gan, editor of V Magazine, told the New York Times. "It was about dealing with a subject that in my world is such a taboo. In fashion, putting on two pounds is a taboo."

But the 5'9" 23-year-old Renn didn't always wear a size 12. When a modeling scout asked her to lose weight when she was a teenager, she lived on a diet of sugar-free Jell-O and Diet Coke, and weighed only 95 pounds when she moved to New York in 2002 at age 15. She's come a long way since then, as she told the Times.

"I've always felt, in some ways, like an outsider," said Ms. Renn, who now weighs about 165. "But that is the fashion industry. You know how that is. The creative one at the school, the outsider, the goth or the gay guy -- whatever it is, they always get made fun of. I feel like they all got together and moved to New York City and made the fashion industry.

"And here I am," she said. "I feel right at home, very much accepted and very happy."

PHOTOS:

• • • • • • • With Jean-Paul Gaultier on October 4, 2005

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Comments

[Atra]

10:37 AM on 01/15/2010

Headline should read, " I lived on the dream diet of 12 yo boy to have the body of a 12 yo boy".

[Conk]

08:51 AM on 01/15/2010

She has horrible taste in clothing. Dang!

[NoSillyName]

06:48 PM on 01/17/2010

Doubt she has any choice when she has to be "ON".

[Trueheart]

08:16 AM on 01/15/2010

This girl is lovely. All she has to do is stay fit, and wear clothes that suit her frame.
Since when is Size 12 a women's plus size? I thought it started with size 18.
I read somewhere that the gold beaded dress worn by Marilyn Monroe when she sang Happy Birthday to JFK was a size 14 and they had to sew her into it. No problem with that lady's sex appeal.

[carester]

10:26 AM on 01/15/2010

The only problem with Marilyn Monroe's dress is that a size 14 back then is NOT a size 14 these days. Nowadays companies make sizes big to make women feel better. It's just a trick from the corporations :-)

[Trueheart]

11:08 PM on 01/17/2010

When I was a pup, the rule of thumb was that a made-to-order or couture size 10 was really a 7th Avenue size 12....the better clothiers wanted to flatter their customers by making them think they were a size smaller. By that logic, La Monroe's size 14 would have been an off the rack size 16. :) What really matters is that the woman was a knockout by anybody's standards.

[seppoyank]

06:57 AM on 01/15/2010

I really wish that publishers would stop printing the "this is what I ate when I was crazy anorexic" statements. Would it be so hard to skip the bloody details and say that whoever had an extremely unhealthy diet and just leave it at that?

It is like printing an instruction manual for eating disorders. It doesn't matter if all the pro-anorexia websites are shut down when legitimate sources are give such helpful tips.

Also, just a little thing like "she lived on a diet of sugar-free Jell-O and Diet Coke, and weighed only 95 pounds" can trigger an eating disorder relapse in someone who is recovering.

[MarciL]

03:09 AM on 01/15/2010

"We've seen that super-skinny women can be as unhappy as the fattest fat girl."

Well, that may be the stereotype, but you shouldn't assume that's true for every woman. Or even most women.

[hellosunshine3]

01:43 AM on 01/15/2010

When Crystal was a young skinny model, I worked with her. Now,as a plus size model, She is even so much more beautiful. She is sexy and confident. She is an amazing model and person. Plus size can be so beautiful. Good for her!!

[afgail]

01:29 AM on 01/15/2010

Wouldn't this country be a better place if politicians actually told the truth and female models looked like real women instead of young boys with plastic boobs?

[jellyrollq]

02:03 PM on 01/15/2010

Amen preach it!

[impatient]

12:49 AM on 01/15/2010

Hey when they use this woman as a plus sized model, they are skinny-ing her up cnsiderably. the owman in the candid shots in the slide show is completely unrecognizeable from the woman in the magazine. THAT's the story here.

[GerryS]

12:35 AM on 01/15/2010

my goodness,

I reviewed the photos offered,

there are many photos that look like a different woman------------

ps-- and it isn't cuz she's skinny, or the other ( for the miderators)

[AverageJose007]

12:12 AM on 01/15/2010

Most of the fashion designers are sick twisted men who desire a wafe looking BOYISH figure.

[GrownupStewie]

02:29 AM on 01/15/2010

not true, the reason most models are very thin is because when designing a collection, all the clothes are the same size, and the bigger the girl the more diverse her shape and thus the harder it is to dress her without time lost on perfect tailoring to one particular model. Most models are a size 2, and because of this most designers build their clothes for only size 2 models. Only when they have a special very famous model will they custom make an outfit for them to walk down the runway. Also, they are made in a one size fits only size 2 models because when they send out clothes for photoshoots, 90% of the time the designer isnt there to alter a piece. Its harder to make every piece in a collection a different size than it is to find a group of girls that all wear the same size. Designers are not going to alter a 30k dress for a girl who is one size bigger, and who will only wear it once....its basic business. Its sad and cold but its the truth.

[Art Dodger]

03:01 AM on 01/15/2010

Yes, you are quite right. It is about money and being able to fit someone without altering an outfit, so a standardized size is necessary. What I want to know is how size 2 was decided upon. How many size 2 women does the average person know? If 12 is "plus" size, does that mean women have to be size 2 or 4 to be "normal"? It is clear that the only way to attain that ideal is either to be born tall and lanky (more rare than not), or to starve oneself. Being healthy is one thing--starving to fit an impossible ideal is another.

[carnegie]

08:19 AM on 01/15/2010

didn;t fit models used to be 8? Isn't that more realistic?

[complice]

10:05 AM on 01/15/2010

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and your no-so-subtle attempt to conlfate the design aesthetic of male fashion designers with p3d-0-ph ila or the fetishization of boys reveals just how deeply you've reached into the cavernous recesses of your a[r]s e to come up with that ridiculous statement.

1. The fashion industry isn't run by designers, it's run by magazine editors and advertising execs--many of them powerful women, like Anna Wintour, Carine Roitefeld, etc.--who carefully craft & control the images presented to the public.

2. The majority of male fashion designers, or at least those who have made any signifigant impact upon the world (save for a few notable exceptions), have always worshipped the female form. They design clothes for women, not boys.

3. There are just as many successful female designers working in the industry today who show their clothes on tall, svelte-looking women.

4. You have no idea what you're talking about.

[Art Dodger]

12:49 PM on 01/15/2010

I agree with you, there is a lot of homophobia coming through these posts. The small size obsession is not entirely because of the designers, which as you point out are often straight or female. It's an entire beauty aesthetic that has developed over time, supported by the consultants, media and fashion houses. What about Ralph Lauren (straight) who photoshopped a size 2 model into cartoon-like narrowness? Since the 1960's (Twiggy era) the silhouette is just getting more and more extremely thin. I think we should continue the dialog and examine why.

[Gin1234]

11:36 PM on 01/14/2010

Wow. She is just a normal person. How twisted have we let ourselves be by the idi0ts who pose as fashion experts? We have let greedy abnormal money hungry CEOs and designers dictate to us what normal should be, and they are the abnormal ones.

[Hedgehogging]

11:07 PM on 01/14/2010

Can't folks see this is why America is screwed up?

This girl is a perfect example! She thinks a diet is Diet Coke and Sugar Free Jello?!?! Geez... this is not a diet it's a slow toxic suicide!

Don't Americans understand the toxic effects of Aspartame? Anything "sugar free" is guaranteed to be loaded with chemicals that make you sick!!!

Americans are fat because they don't have a simple nutritional foundation.

Process sugar whether derived from chemicals or the real thing is BAD for you, period, end of story!

Stop making excuses for America's lack of nutritional intelligence, please.

[TheLondonRich]

12:05 AM on 01/15/2010

She never said it was a healthy diet. She's not advocating it as a healthy diet, or even a feasible one. In fact, the whole point of her interview is to point out just how UNhealthy it was for her both physically and psychologically.

Really, if you want to rag on someone lacking "nutritional intelligence" (whatever that means this week), there are celebrities like Megan Fox or Gwen Paltrow, both of whom have waxed enthusiastic about fad purges and "detox" diets.

[HGfromOmaha]

10:49 PM on 01/14/2010

Didn't Lionel Richie sing that one song about her?? "All Night Long"....

[bnyb]

10:16 PM on 01/14/2010

More curves in 2010!!!!!

[ElleVelle]

10:12 PM on 01/14/2010

You are an amazing woman. Thank you for being you!

[cobobs]

02:02 AM on 01/15/2010

Why is she amazing? Being oneself is a good thing, but amazing?

[Callyson]

02:35 AM on 01/15/2010

Well, I would call her amazing for having the courage, as a young woman who wanted success as a model, to choose to be a beauty at her size, rather than risk her health and happiness to downsize to the fashion industry's vision of female beauty.
And her willingness to write about her experience, and by doing so potentially empowering other young women to feel good about themselves even if they are not a size zero, is also amazing.
If you don't find that amazing, then perhaps you haven't spent much time in the fashion world. Fair enough, but let me assure you that Crystal Renn has done a lot to promote the acceptance of beauty at any size in an industry that was not predisposed to acept that message. In my book, that is indeed amazing.