I want to congratulate Whitney, the winner of America’s Next Top Model, for consistent showmanship, poise, stating a plus-size-positive message whenever she had the opportunity. Here’s a YouTube of her interview on the Regis and Kelly show:

I watched a few of the old episodes from YouTube, and I was impressed by how consistently Whitney projected a size-positive message, and had no fear of speaking out about the unhealthy, abusive expectations the modeling industry places on the majority of its “normal-sized” (!!) clients.

One of her lines during the morning show interview was: “Do you know the majority of nine years olds are dieting? And I have a 13 year-old cousin who thinks she’s fat! Can you believe that?”

Gorgeous and wonderful. I know many people here object to the fact that they don’t consider her truly “plus-sized” since she’s a size 10 and most plus sizes start at 12, but remember, this is “plus-size” as defined by the 0-2 obsessed high-fashion industry. What Whitney consistently projected throughout the show was that she was a normal girl who ate normally.

And, by the way, can I say right now that I heart The Deep South for apparently being more fat positive than the rest of the country?

Here’s another telling line from the interview:

“At the Versace show none of the other girls were eating, and I brought a regular Italian lunch — you know, pasta and everything — and you should have seen them look at me.” [she said this in a very size-positive way, not a guilty way] “You know, you need brain-energy to walk and have a presence on the runway.” [So true! Earlier in the show a girl actually *collapsed and had to be put on oxygen* because I believe she wasn't eating]

Congrats, Whitney, again. And I can’t wait to see your spreads, and I can’t wait to see you dumbfound the industry and the current media as you go on their shows and make them look so, so tiny. The news anchorwoman who introduced Whitney’s segment actually said, “So maybe I should eat something.” !! I know that was probably facetious, but I bet a part of her was thinking, Man, this girl won a beauty contest and she gets to eat…what the hell, my producers would *kill* me if I just gained five pounds!

Here’s to snapping this toxic culture’s spine in two.