Crystal Renn is a plus size model who began her career as a straight sized model at the young age of 14. After being discovered by a scout, Crystal was asked to lose 50lbs and began starving herself to maintain her skinny figure. After a slew of crazy diets, Crystal got to a point where she just couldn’t lose anymore weight. Her agent recommended she try plus size modeling and the rest is history 
Crystal has been very outspoken with her views on body image and has been an inspiration to aspiring plus models everywhere. She is highly successful with an amazing career – the only plus model to appear on a Harper’s Bazaar cover, contracts with Mango, Evans, Lane Bryant and Torrid and of course, her famous finale walk down the runway for Jean-Paul Gaultier’s 2006 prêt-à-porter collection. Booking these types of jobs is simply unheard of in the plus industry.
I have photos of Crystal plastered all over my walls so I was thrilled when I came across the December 2008 issue of Italian Elle. Not only was she on the cover of the magazine, she had a 8 page editorial in the issue! But when I began looking at the images, I was struck by how thin Crystal looked. Is it just me or does she look like a size 2? Is this the work of a master photoshopper or has she gone the way of the lettuce chomper and dropped the pounds to book more work? Doesn’t this go against everything she stands for?
What do you guys think? Would you still consider Crystal a plus model?
