I am not naturally that thin, so I had to go through everything from using drugs to diet pills to laxatives to fasting. Those were my main ways of controlling my weight.

I think that we can't deny the public's want for balancing out the images that are out there depicting women. Not all of us are 17 and a size two.

My days are jam-packed with carpools, classroom assistance, tending to chickens, dogs and seven acres of olive trees!

I am a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother. I am a friend of women and I am their advocate.

Eating disorders, body dysmorphia and a general dissatisfaction with one's life and body seems to ail too many young people.

I was essentially paid to perpetuate the myth that we are all, or should at least try to be, 17 and a size 2 forever.

Though my parents assured me over and over again that I wasn't stupid or slow, I sensed that my dyslexia was now a stigma on all of us.