My weight fluctuated when I was 30, and I did the unthinkable - I stepped out as a plus-sized model.

I'm proud that today, at 43 years old, I've come to value the aging process and focus on inner rather than outer beauty.

I've learned to surround myself with women who lift me up and leave me feeling nurtured rather than drained.

I was born in 1968, just eighteen months after my sister Chrisse and just one year after Dad passed the bar exam.

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.

I delight in my family obligations, but they leave little time for breaks let alone quick trips across the country.

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