There are moments in your life where you're like I have arrived. I'm here and I'm living and I'm present. And working with Jean Paul Gaultier was one of them.

I walked into my agency and I said, "You know what? I can't do this. You're telling me I need to go on a diet? My diet is already zucchini only. What do you want me to do?" And basically, they gave me two options: either stay the way I was and do commercial work, or do plus size modeling. I remember having the usual salad but I added walnuts and salmon and olive oil and I thought, "The world didn't blow up!"I felt fantastic. I wanted to keep that feeling so I made a decision that day that I didn't care. There was more money to be made being healthy.

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.

We all have demons. I am a human being and I have bad days and I have bad things going on in my head that I have to deal with, but I'm very confident in my recovery.

I believe in trying foods from all over the world, going to markets and finding jewelry and furniture and just treating myself well. It's important for me creatively to travel.

Models should just be beautiful women who inspire others. They won't be starving themselves because they are being accepted for themselves. Any thinner than today's ideals would be impossible. Any thinner means dead.

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