The girls everyone considers the "prettiest" are not always the most interesting or ambitious people.

The girls everyone considers the "prettiest" are not always the most interesting or ambitious people.

Focus and having energy is the most important goal when choosing my activities and how I treat myself.

We're fighting a stigma: fat. People are really scared of fat. And I think we need to change people's minds and show that you can be bigger and you can be beautiful just as you are. It's about being and loving yourself and once I discovered that, life got much easier.

Ninety-nine percent of girls want to be models because they believe it will mean that they are the most beautiful women in the world. They think that they will wear expensive clothes, makes loads of money, travel a lot and have a rock star for a boyfriend. This never interested me. I didn't want anyone to scream out my name. I wanted to make art, to create an image with a photographer. And yes, I wanted to get out of Clinton, Mississippi - a small town that was so closed-minded you can't even imagine.

It's so hard to give beauty a meaning. I actually find quite a lot of beauty in really painful things. Really grotesque things. Things that are disturbing. I think as you go and as you see things in the world, your idea of beauty expands and I think I'm lucky because I've been exposed to so many different types of beauty and I've realized that any feeling you cherish is beautiful.

No matter what size you are, you must be healthy. I focus on health as a model, whether it's doing yoga, hiking, kickboxing - those things bring me joy.