It really made me hyper-aware of my body. Read on for their thoughts and their striking, unretouched portraits. I think it was when I was older, because I never paid attention to that stuff back in those days. I feel like the more we open the conversation to people who are not a standard model size, the more the general public and the consumers will be empowered to just feel comfortable being themselves. It is, at the most basic level, and pushes on connective tissue, making the skin dimple. I started modeling seven years ago.
It's the same for the body issues. I'm getting a little fat here. Big to small to whatever race, so I think it's different now. I think since I started modeling in the last three years, it's crazy how everything changed. If that's part of being a human being, why is that ugly? I was actually thinner when I started modeling, but I'm comfortable how I am. Even though I run my own company, my own charity, my blog, I'm a model, and I'm never not working, I always feel like I should be doing more for people. I have cellulite mostly on the back of my thighs and my butt, but my relationship with my cellulite doesn't bother me because it's a part of who I am.
My feelings kind of grew worse and worse the whole teenage years. When I first started out trying to model, I felt like if I wanted to be a plus model, I had to lose weight, which didn't really make sense after a while. I can work on it, and I know that at the end it's in my hands, but also, I'm a woman and we have cellulite. The country is smaller, and I feel like they're always a little bit left behind. I feel like it's just part of like being human. . Your body can do anything, literally anything.
If you don't want anybody to see your cellulite, it's okay. I do work out a lot, but the one problem area is my thighs. I can't remove that from myself and I don't necessarily want to. My cellulite is just a part of who I am. There's no point treating it badly or wanting to change it because we think it's ugly. We have to be proud of our bodies, and as long as we love the way we look, love the way we are, then that's all that matters.
You have to embrace and love and honor your body because it's with you through thick and thin, through everything you go through. I have so many friends who work out all the time, and they still have cellulite. Dimpled skin is a natural feature, and yet all too often we shame people — particularly women — for having it. I first noticed it when I was maybe eight years old. You choose what empowers you, and that's that.
I feel the most comfortable in a swimsuit and on the beach. I just want the conversation about women's bodies to empower women. I feel like when I was a skinny model and I didn't have stretch marks, didn't have cellulite, I feel like I was more insecure with myself. And I could eat well, I could work out, and that one little area doesn't go away. Allure took a closer look at six women's relationships with their cellulite, asking them how their perspectives on it have changed over time and how they've handled their body image challenges. To me, the hardest is just feeling that I'm doing enough because I always feel like I'm not.
Right now, I'm taking ballet, and I'm in leotards. While there are ways to try and minimize the appearance of cellulite, there's another option: celebration, or at least acceptance, of cellulite. Just repeating that all the time, it helps. I think that's the real happiness. At left, Stephanie; at right, Victoria Fashion stylist: Rajni Jacques. I feel like people get more accepted. There are people out there with smooth legs with no cellulite.
I didn't understand that I didn't appreciate my body yet. It first developed when I was pregnant because I started gaining weight, and then I started getting cellulite and a lot of stretch marks. I didn't feel okay with my body until I moved to the U. So now I'm at the biggest I've ever been, and I'm getting cast. I am all about whatever makes you happy.
If you do want people to see that, that's okay. My cellulite and I have a difficult relationship. Despite what people or what society may think of how my body is supposed to function or look, it's not that. I was 13 or 14 when I first noticed my cellulite — because those are the times you start getting into yourself, you're getting into your friends, you're going out, you're dressing up, so you start to notice how you're different. The main stress right now for me is feeling like it's okay. It's really what I want it to be.