From the time I started school, it was clear to everyone that I wasn't learning at the same pace as other kids.

Exposing any subject that is unpleasant or controversial means risking judgment and making some people feel uncomfortable.

Just as young people absorb all kinds of messages from the media, young girls learn what it means to be a woman by watching the older women in their lives.

I feel like it's my responsibility to honestly cover a lot of subjects in part because I have two little girls and I really want them when they grow up to have a voice.

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

Motherhood has brought me many joys and insights, but the new perspective it granted me on the role I had inadvertently played in young women's lives for the 2 decades I spent in the modeling industry was downright sobering.

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