Check out this great blog entry on Kathy’s blog:
If you don’t have the time to read Kathy’s post, here’s the story in a nutshell. Chloe Marshall won the Miss Surrey pageant and is now advancing to the Miss England pageant. She’s 16 years old, 5’10″ tall, and wears a size 16 UK. (That’s a size 14 for those of us in the U.S.) She said during a recent interview with The Sun, “I wanted to go through to the Miss England finals to break the stereotype that you have to be tall and skinny to be considered beautiful.”
I say kudos to Chloe!! I think we need more role models like this to help young women (and young men these days) to realize that the world of the Abercrombie & Fitch models and the like is not “normal”. There is a LOT of retouching on the photos even of these “perfect” model bodies, so PLEASE don’t compare yourself to them or think less of yourself for not looking like them. They don’t look like them either!
I had enough body image issues growing up in the 70′s & 80′s. I can’t imagine what it must be like for young people now in today’s multimedia world. We need more beautiful young people like Chloe to stand up and remind us that beauty isn’t about being a size 0. It’s about being healthy, comfortable & confident in your own skin, and knowing who you are so that you don’t succumb to the peer pressure that is inevitable of the teenage years. Now I just need to remember that the next time I see a photo of myself or step on the scale and hate the number I see. 
Rock on, Chloe!! 
