how revolutionary! (not)

That's great! At least the world of modeling isn't just one sided anymore..
And besides, just like the sudden change of our generation's appetite, it's best that we at least stick to the real truth: even models starve for what's delicious.

this is a much needed movement

Plus sized... Okay... If that is plus sized than I need to by a moo-moo and adopt seventeen more cats and invest in one hell of a vibrator becuase I am screwed.

Jamie, seriously, everyone should invest in one hell of a vibrator.

About time right? I would like to see some more 'bigger than a size 0' models in Bust. You have one in the current issue which is awesome...

A breath of fresh air these ladies are! As much as i blog about these beautiful curves, it is exciting to see mainstream take notice of the fabulosity!!! Get it , get it! Get it!

The Curvy Fashionista

Kendy, are you kidding? we put big girls in BUST all the time.

and Bust - that's why we love you so-- always recognizing ALL of us ladies in ALL of our glory ...
glad the rest of the world is walking thru that door, or at least starting to...

A letter I just sent to Glamour:

"This issue has redeemed your magazine in my eyes. I stopped reading your publication probably about ten years ago when you published an editorial that bemoaned the fact that fat girls on TV such as MiMi on The Drew Carey Show were allowed to have boyfriends -- because that "encourages" obesity (the article never mentioned that it might encourage obesity that the portly Drew Carey always got to date hot, thin women.) Fat women shouldn't be happy. Fat women shouldn't have boyfriends, or nice clothes, or anything that makes them feel like being fat might be bearable. At the time, I was a recovering bulimic teenager and that article really messed me up.
You finally got it right. In spades. Congrats, you're getting my money again. I'm sure a lot of other women feel the same way.
Just don't blow it, don't make this a one-time deal where you crow about women's body image issues and then three pages from that have two unhealthy diet plans and or workouts designed pointedly to make us look better, not to make our bodies healthier. Don't be a hypocrite. All shapes and sizes are beautiful, from 00 to 30. Choose a tone and stick with it. If you do that, you will have the readership of myself and many other women who feel as I do (there's lots of us.)"

BUST has been featuring women of all ages, shapes, sizes, and colors for years, without much fuss. Like "Oh look! I use a girl who is a size 14!", I don't see any of that in BUST, one of the many reasons I love ya'll.

Erica, good luck with Glamour, I hope they change their ways, but don't hold your breath. I highly doubt there will be any significant change in their editorial. but guess what? I bet they will get more readers from this and maybe some plus size advertising! we shall see...

Ok, those beautiful women are "average" size. I hate the term plus sized being used on women who don't 'need three "x"s in their size. Like someone said before, if this is plus, what does that make me in my size 22 pants?

yeah, those girls are about a size 10 I'd say.

I agree Jerri, they don't look plus size, I wonder what size 20's are thinking when they see this

Don't get me wrong, I love BUST.... but they don't exactly go out of the way to feature plus-sized models as much as they used to. I've been reading since the beginning, and while you see a couple, turn to the fashion feature section and show me a true heavy-set women... go ahead... I'll wait.... Beth Ditto was about as close as it came. And that wasn't in the feature fashion section.

Plus? Plus?! these women are traditional knock-outs! Simply because they are not emaciated, they become labelled, "plus"? Astounding that BUST would promote this notion, rather than critique it.

I'm happy to see the mainstream embracing what I and many others have for YEARS. But really, many of these women are not what I would consider truly fat in the eyes of society. I'd like to see a size 24+ cutie smiling at me from the pages of a magazine more often (for the record-- the issue where bust featured Velvet D'Amour changed my LIFE.)

Jellineck -- I completely agree with you.

One of the reasons I started reading BUST is because "plus-sized" models were actually representing women like me. But it's been eons since I've seen one in a fashion spread. The "above-average" woman writes, paints, sings, and dances, and alot of us wear clothes while doing so. For chrissakes, ladies! Put the busty back in BUST.

i think we look better on magazines! thank you bust!

Wow, I love that, I could have posed too! How about taking this concept to the next reality level, aged, with cancer.

Thirding Jellineck. I love BUST, but I don't see many "bigger" gals in the fashion spreads.

I am not okay with the way magazines portray women. We've gone to extremes. Healthy is not a zero, neither is it a 20-24. From someone's who struggled with weight her entire life, I understand the both sides of the story. Health is defined by an active lifestyle, healthy eating habits and positive mental health. This doesn't deserve an award, neither did the cover of LOVE magazine a few months ago. This sells magazines, Glamour is smart enough to start capitalizing on what women want to hear now.

I don't think that BUST promotes this notion that sizes 8-14 is plus size. They were referring to the industry belief that it is. And also, I think it's great that they featured the Glamour article. We can bitch and moan about how awful the standards and industry are, but it's going to take people in the industry and inner circle to take a stand on the variety of different beautiful bodies out there if we want change to happen. If we are just talking amongst ourselves, we are just preaching to the choir, ladies. Features like these reach people that have no outlet like Bust or Bitch to reach out to.

Camille, you're absolutely right. When I'm working on client campaigns or speaking, I discussed it openly. I will not use women that don't represent realistic expectations of the women that use my clients' products. Our industry needs to make it work beyond just publicity and selling.

If those girls are plus sized than I guess I'm obese! I would consider these woman average size. It's nice to see REAL beautiful women rather than stick figures that put way to much pressure on the real women of the world.

Macala, I totally agree about what you said about Glamour...capitalizing on what women want to hear now. I think that a magazine like Glamour's intent is to sell magazines, no doubt. I mean, it took readers to write them for them to do this feature; it wasn't there idea. I like to imagine though, that despite the motives, it's going to change some girl's/woman's mind about how she sees herself, and she will be less self deprecating and more accepting of who she is, and then something good can come from the greed and the capitalism.

I am pretty sure that Crystal Renn is a size 12. I'm about to read her book called Hungry, she tells of her own struggles in the modeling industry.
I don't think that models should be a certain size period.
I think models should have only a few requirements.. to be beautiful naturally or to be at least interesting looking.
And all of these ladies are definitely beautiful!!

fourthing (?) jellineck -- in that i feel like the fashion models in BUST are for the most part on the thin side (with the "plus"/normal-sized girls being the exceptions). i think BUST is giving itself a little too much credit by ending that blurb about glamour with a self-congratulatory "we've been doing that for years!" (and this is coming from a fan/subscriber of BUST!)

I really don't understand why a size 10 is a "plus size"? I thought "Plus" was size 18 and up?

I have been reading bust for about two years, so maybe I have missed something-
but I never see plus sized models on the pages of bust-
yes they often profile plus sized women-
but the fashion spreads as far as I can tell do not.

Well that's great, except I don't see anyone in that picture who is plus sized. They all look like women with a healthy weight who aren't photoshopped to death.

I'm glad Glamour is using bigger models, but they still haven't really used any in fashion spreads. Although its article does address that many designers still won't make clothes higher than a certain size. Even though it would make them more money. And if those women are plus-sized, then what does that say about anyone bigger than those girls? I'm bigger than they are! Even plus-size stores and catalogs won't use really big models. Bust has been better about using bigger models, or focusing on larger women, but I can't recall any fashion spreads featuring a size 16 or higher. I only hope my memory is faulty on that. If you're fat, you're mostly forgotten except as a punchline!

The sick part of being a 'plus size' model is that is considered a size 8 vs a size0-4. 'Plus sized' models model clothing meant for plus sized women. The only problem with that is that plus sizes start larger than a size 8. I think they (designers and all) should even that out.

I was a size 8 (after dieting and lots of exercise) and attempted to model. I was suprised when my agent immediately told me to drop about 30 lbs more. I was like 'do you want me to have my bones sticking out....eww'. Now a few years later at 22 I'm size 10 and happy about it.

I think we need to get out terms straight here. Calling a slim girl "big" or "plus" and referring to scrawny models as "regular" is not going to help us find a healthy sense of reality about body size.

These girls are closer to normal sized than most models, sure. But they are still thinner than the average American woman. They are neither plus, nor big. Maybe they are in reference to the normalised skinny model. But the fact that the skinny model is the norm, is PRECISELY WHAT WE NEED TO FIGHT AGAINST!

Plus size, they are not. I am this size... When I was in Florence, Italy shopping for clothes, the lady said they keep my size, extra large, in the back, out of sight. I was a size 10 and still am! I said to her, geesh it's a good thing I don't have an insecurity about my size.. this is the sort of thing that promotes sickness. I worked as a creative director in a health and wellness company too and was working on a design with a woman holding measuring tape around her waist.. yes, cliche.. and the CEO came by my desk and said, she is too fat scale back her waist and hips... She had a 24 inch waist and after the retouch, probably a 17 inch waist.. I said to him outright, what am I to you, a whale??? I understood his issue when I met his girlfriend at the time who had the body of a 10 year old little boy. It was pretty unbelievable.. Constantly while I worked there, the executives would alalyze my meals.. it was ridiculous especially because, I am a very healthy vegetarian!!! This world is so messed up and this Glamour spread is only a step closer to spreading the health vibe...

This is interesting, because we just had a big media storm over a similar issue. During Fashion Week there was a shoot featuring plus sized models and the comments section on news.com.au went crazy with people saying things like, 'This just teaches young women it's okay to be fat'. As someone who has ranged from skeletal to overweight, I find it so ridiculous that people think looking at a girl like this will make me fat.

Check out this blog from Mia Freedman, ex-Editor of Australian Cosmo and Cleo, on mamamia.com.au. She's addressing an article slamming plus-sized models.

http://mamamia.com.au/weblog/2009/09/are-big-models-like-this-bad-role-models.html

yay, as an art model with bodacious curves I celebrate this mind-opening move by major mags! and without clothes truly sends home the message that women are beautiful no matter the size! thanks for sharing this awesome news!

I am glad to see "bigger" women, but this is barely plus size. It is great to see the celebration of "real" women, imperfect but still beautiful, women who have had children or don't always starve themselves to fit into society. But we still have a LONG way to come Baby!
I do plus size modeling and I celebrate my curves but it is still more a novelty than a true acceptance in today's world. Bravo to these women and many like them and to the photographers and professionals that recognize their beauty.I look forward to more.
www.modelmayhem.com lady scarlett
www.myspace.com/freakygrl222
Michelle

Wow, they have stomachs, that is plus size?! they look like me....regular, who has had two kids!

I don't remember seeing any plus sized models in BUST in the past few years. But I have noted the rail thin musicians.

Love BUST, always will but sometimes you may toot your horn a little more than warranted.

I'm going to be honest here - super skinny models make me feel sorry for them, plus sized models don't inspire me to buy. When I see a plus sized model I think I don't want to be that, I don't want to let myself go and give in and buy fat clothes. I've yo-yo'd between a size 14 and a size 10 for as long as I can remember. I'm happier when I'm a 10 bc it means I've been exercising - which makes me feel good!

I do kind of agree with the view point that plus sized models should be around a 14-16, not a 20-something b/c people who are that overweight really should make an effort to take care of themselves. Obesity really does cause health problems - that's not a big lie! And obesity should not be encouraged.

Undergirl: relax. Obesitiy does cause health problems, but those women aren't obese at all and we all deserve to see all body shapes and sizes represented. That's all I say.

I'm totally relaxed! I was responding to the other people on this thread who said that the models aren't real plus-sized women.

While it's nice to see women over a size zero in magazines, this does not reflect my reality. I wear a size 22 and have never seen a woman who looks like me in a magazine spread or an ad campaign (unless it's a fat-shaming "before" picture in a weight-loss story). Not even Lane Bryant, whose business is selling clothes to fat women, has ever had a woman my size in their ads.

And to UnderGirl and Macala Wright, please don't waste any tears feeling bad about us unhealthy fat girls. You obviously have no idea what health really is. I'm super active and eat about as healthfully as you can and still happily fill out my size 22 pants. Fat doesn't equal lazy. Get a clue and check out the blog Shapely Prose for some pointers.

WHOOOO!!!

These chicks look great! Way, way better then the little twigs we see in those magazines.

Sadly, alot of girls nowadays think that to be beautiful, they must look like they lasted through a couple famines. Don't they realize that looking like a nine year old boy pales in comparison to curves?