If you don't have a well-thought out dream, you can start by figuring out where you want to go. If you cannot see yourself fairly or accurately represented in the community you live (from restaurants to department stores to clothing choices to conversations at the dinner table) and nothing there makes you feel awake or alive, I suggest you start doing some research on some other communities.

I don't believe consumers want to see fuller-figured girls in ads. Because if they did they would refuse to buy the things they are seeing, and want to buy a different product. If people really want to see a change, they have to speak up on a daily basis to see that change. And I think that models who are suffering from an eating disorder, it is as sad to look at them as the person who is suffering from obesity or who is smoking outside their office or person who is drinking too much at the bar - everybody is suffering from something pretty much.

In breaking away from the familiar and the expected, you'll be forced and privileged to face greater challenges, learn harder lessons, and really get to know yourself.

For some reason, everyone says "fashion is responsible for skinny models." I don't believe that myself. I believe consumers dictate commercial success and trends in a capitalistic society. So I believe if consumers wanted to see - like, who decided that Barney the Dinosaur was going to be a million-dollar industry?

After all, you can't truly be happy if you've never known pain. You can't truly feel joy if you've never felt heartbreak. You can't know what it's like to be filled unless you've been empty.

I work in fashion because the world is such a heavy place that I need to be in this industry that fights for five hours to get a dress.

The hardest lessons to learn are the ones your soul needs most.