‘I said to myself: ‘‘OK, it’s not the best picture, but it’s not a big deal. And anyway, nobody’s going to see it.’’ Famous last words!’
But that photograph, buried in the back of the magazine, generated a global media frenzy and turned her into a supermodel.
Hundreds of emails and letters poured in from women overwhelmed with joy at seeing a normal body in a magazine.
‘Seeing someone not airbrushed, with an average looking body, compared to all those stick-thin pictures of perfection — I guess people thought: ‘‘Wow! This girl looks like me,’’ ’ says Lizzie.
‘It really struck a chord. The work flooded in, with lucrative contracts with American and Italian fashion labels.’
‘Seeing someone not airbrushed, with an average looking body, compared to all those stick-thin pictures of perfection — I guess people thought: ‘‘Wow! This girl looks like me,’’ ’ says Lizzie.
‘It really struck a chord. The work flooded in, with lucrative contracts with American and Italian fashion labels.’
Ironically, it was the public reaction that helped Lizzie finally accept her own body in all its curvy glory.
‘The part of myself I was most insecure about was my stomach,’ she says. ‘My weight has been an issue I’ve struggled with all my life. But the response I got made me realise other people out there felt like me.
‘One girl wrote to me to say her sister had told her she was fat and ugly all her life. Now, when she feels bad about herself, she goes to her computer, looks at a picture of me and she feels better.
‘As I read what she had written, I started crying — I felt so sorry for her. Knowing I could help her feel better about herself is so rewarding to me.’
A year on and the reverberations are continuing. Chanel cast plus-size model Crystal Renn in its Cruise 2011 show, and there have been fashion magazine issues dedicated to larger sizes, including V Magazine’s Size issue and Vogue Curvy.
Essentials has announced it will no longer feature celebrities or models on its cover after a survey of readers suggested they preferred ‘real women’.
And when luscious Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks revealed that designers refused to loan her clothes because of her size, it unleashed a storm of protest.
‘The part of myself I was most insecure about was my stomach,’ she says. ‘My weight has been an issue I’ve struggled with all my life. But the response I got made me realise other people out there felt like me.
‘One girl wrote to me to say her sister had told her she was fat and ugly all her life. Now, when she feels bad about herself, she goes to her computer, looks at a picture of me and she feels better.
'It's crazy that fashion recognises only one body type': The 21-year-old, who is a British size 14 to 16, in a recent shoot
A year on and the reverberations are continuing. Chanel cast plus-size model Crystal Renn in its Cruise 2011 show, and there have been fashion magazine issues dedicated to larger sizes, including V Magazine’s Size issue and Vogue Curvy.
Essentials has announced it will no longer feature celebrities or models on its cover after a survey of readers suggested they preferred ‘real women’.
And when luscious Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks revealed that designers refused to loan her clothes because of her size, it unleashed a storm of protest.
