Jameela Jamil Quotes

Some models are naturally very thin, but if they aren't naturally like that, then what these girls do to their health to fit in... To be a size zero or a two when you're tall is incredible to me.

I don't understand why it's not okay to be plus-size. I don't know why people hate that phrase. Many models have built their careers as plus-size women and then suddenly don't want to be called that anymore. But you're still cashing checks from plus-size designers.

I interview about three thousand models yearly, and I must see almost 20 tons of excess avoirdupois annually.

I definitely think the girls look too skinny now. I'm friends with models Helena Christensen and Linda Evangelista, and I remember Linda telling me that when she was a model in the nineties, a sample size was a 6 or an 8. Now a sample dress size is a 0 or a 2. That's pretty alarming. There's a lot of pressure on the models. It's not healthy. I can't even imagine what that's like.

And anyway, modeling wasn't for me. I'm too short. I've got a big butt. It wasn't going to happen.

I had the serendipity of modeling during a temporary interlude between Twiggy and Kate Moss, when it was actually okay for women to look as if we ate and enjoyed life.

The barrier to entry, to being a model, is not hard work. You don't need a degree. You don't need to win an award. It's just about how you look.

I really don't think I ever thought I could be a model. I was shorter than all of the models around and certainly rounder than anybody that I had ever seen in a magazine.

Becoming a model was very counter-culture for my background, which is hyper-liberal, academic and feminist.

I did a little modeling in Minnesota, but because I was a heavier 'model,' I didn't pursue it much when I lived there.

There have been top supermodels in the past that weren't as tall as the industry demands, like fashion icon Kate Moss.

Why would anyone want to be called a size zero or even aspire to being a zero? I don't even understand the thinking behind it, let alone the practicalities. What is all that about?

I never cared about modeling. As a model, you're powerless.

Within the modeling industry, there's no doubt that there are some girls out there that are too thin. But there are also girls who are genetically slim and can eat like a horse.

Fashion is quite inclusive and good at embracing different things and different forms of beauty. It's a very liberal industry. You can be yourself. Just not overweight.

I have always been too round to do fashion shows.

It would be nice if models were allowed to be a more healthy weight - for the models, and for the young women who look up to them. We were athletic and healthy, and we looked like women.

I was my thinnest when doing 35 fashion shows a week in different countries because I didn't have time to eat. I've never bought the idea that models in fashion magazines cause readers to have anorexia and bulimia. And you can't be a model if you've got those conditions anyway, because you'll get acne and hair all over your body.

In the '90s, I wouldn't have been a supermodel.

I've never been a size 0.

I've always hated modeling. It's superficial and fake, and I hate to have to care about what I look like. I get a pimple and freak. The whole business is all about selling beautiful girls' faces and bodies, so how can there be anything intelligent or nice about that except for the girl who makes money?

Casting plus size girls needs to be genuine.

For so long, I have been an outsider because of my size. And I think that fashion has always, in some way, catered to celebrities or to a thinner idealistic model.

When I'm a gender capitalist in the fashion world, I basically can go to any casting that I want to as long as somebody likes my face.

Social media has truly helped my career because it has given models a voice. And a voice is something that we want to see a change in the industry.