Heartbreak taught me that you can rise from the ashes and get over anything.

Heartbreak taught me that you can rise from the ashes and get over anything.

I’m elated. I guess it’s better late than never. Welcome to the 21st century. It’s fantastic. I love Dior, and Rihanna is very much one of my style icons. I’m happy they got there in the end. I adore her style. She loves fashion, she’s unafraid. She uses her imagination, which is something we should all strive to do.

I was supposedly living this glamorous life, but I was crippled by the idea of growing old and where do I go next? The whole age thing—in our industry, it's everything.

There's so much more purpose behind my getting up in the morning. Business is hard, really hard, but it's worth it.

My dean gave me permission to model during my work semester, even though I was in the Criminal Justice Department. I don't know whether I'd ever have become a model if he hadn't let me do that.

My daughter has fulfilled all of my dreams, because she has a BA and MBA in business. She's both a financial analyst and a plus-size model. She has the best of both worlds because, in modeling, you have to have something to fall back on.