Plus-Size H&M Model Jennie Runk Says We Need to Stop Obsessing About Size

The “plus-size” model debate is nothing new. Companies either aren’t using enough of them or are receiving criticism when they do for their visual interpretation of what “plus-size” should be seen as. So naturally, when H&M recruited “plus-size” model Jennie Runk (a US size 14) to show off some looks from their summer beachwear line, it got people talking. Jennie, 24, was caught off guard by the attention:

So, suddenly having a large amount of publicity was an awkward surprise at first. I found it strange that people made such a fuss about how my body looks in a bikini, since I don’t usually give it much thought.”

Like many girls, Jennie struggled with her weight growing up. At 5’9″, the 13-year-old Missouri native was a perfectly normal size 8, but “normal” can be hard to swallow in middle school.

Years later, Jennie was discovered in a PetSmart wearing the same sweatpants she loathed as an adolescent She was given the option to either lose weight and try to make it as a size 4 model, or gain a few pounds, stick to a size 10 and rock out in the “plus-size” world. She chose to keep eating.

But Jennie, like many of us, is sick of the weight debate on the whole and wants to help women learn to be comfortable with the skin they’re in.

You can read Jennie’s editorial in it’s entirety here.

Featured image via BBC