Coco Austin Quotes

I was a dancer, but I was always a little overweight. I'd say, 'Hello, I'm Valerie Harper, and I'm overweight.' I'd say it quickly before they could... I always got called chubby. My nose was too wide; my hair was too kinky.

Like virtually all of the women I know, I spent my teenage years battling with my body and feeling I wasn't good enough. A lot of that negativity is because I was pursuing a career in modeling and was told countless times that my body was too big. My hips and thighs were too wide.

Back in Nebraska, I was known as the fat model - the girl who was pretty for a big girl. My body, like my confidence, has been picked apart, manipulated, and controlled by others who didn't necessarily understand it.

Standards of beauty are arbitrary. Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don't match our own beliefs about how we should look.

I'm insecure about everything, because... I'm never going to look in the mirror and see this blond, blue-eyed girl. That is my idea of what I'd like to look like.

Every woman is not a runway model, nor should she be.

I am self-conscious, and I'm aware of my body. But I struggle with America's limited idea of what perfection is.

But as a young model, I never felt as beautiful as I looked.

I went to almost all of the agencies in New York when I first visited. A lot of them wanted to sign me but also kind of indirectly were telling me that I needed to change in some way. Some directly told me that I wouldn't be a model unless I changed the way that my body looked.

I don't look like a model, but you have to work with what you got.

We're taught as a society what is acceptable for women to look like and what's not. And where fat should be and shouldn't. And I think it's important to sometimes reprogram ourselves and recondition ourselves to not have so much negativity toward our own bodies.

I think sometimes girls look at Victoria's Secret models and think that they have to model themselves after that, but I really don't think that's the best; even though they are called 'models,' they're not the best people to model yourself after.

I'm not going to have beautiful curves or Kim Kardashian's body. I just have to accept that.

I think that people put a lot of worth into looks. Unfortunately, there's a standard that so many people look up to that is unrealistic for everyone's body type.

There's no pressure on me to be a particular weight. But I loathe being renowned as a 'larger' model. It makes me cringe.

I don't have a supermodel body. I'm always trying to hide something.

I'm just very body-conscious. Sometimes I'm really proud that I don't look like other pop stars. But there's also moments where I'm like, 'Ugh, I wish I had abs like Bieber.'

I really don't see little girls growing up and thinking, 'Oh, I'm going to morph myself so I look like Barbie.'

I was never thin enough to be a proper model and not big enough to be plus-size.

It's not all about having the perfect body, perfect hair, perfect smile.

I don't think what size I am really matters.

I get mad at my girlfriends when they say things about their neck or something, "My neck is a disaster," and I'm like, "Come on, you don't even believe that." You're taking that from the outside world, you know? You look amazing, you're beautiful, you're 40, you're in the prime of your life. I'm not interested in fighting it at all. I don't think anyone else is wrong for trying to fight it, however.

It's a very specific body. Even great reviews will be like: chubby, portly, overweight. . . . Sometimes I'm like, 'Ugh, how did I make myself the guinea pig for this?' But on the other hand, hating my body has not been my cross to bear in this life. Which I feel very lucky about.

It seems totally unfair that the way we look matters so much. I mean, why can't we just get over this gotta-be-thin-and-beautiful thing? Why can't we just accept ourselves and others for what we are?

I think that people are built the way that they’re built. There’s that Kate Moss quote that’s like ‘Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ and I can name a lot of things that taste better than skinny feels: bread, potatoes … a Philly cheesesteak and fries.