Gretchen Bleiler Quotes

I remember when I was young, before we started lifting and working out, I looked like I was bench-pressing other humans. I looked different than other girls. I had to be OK with the fact that I had a strong physique, no matter if people looked at me in an accepting way or not.

I'm cool. I don't need to be skinny. I like to be strong.

I tell girls, 'If you're tall and feel too tall, the answer is to be taller.'

I like to be strong.

I'm super athletic and I love to work out, and obviously I need to workout for my industry as well, but I love learning something and developing that skill and feeling strong. Girls who can kick butt are hot.

I was often told that I wasn't a thing. 'She's not pretty enough. She's not tall enough. She's not thin enough. She's not fat enough.' I thought, 'O.K., someday you're going to be looking for someone not, not, not, not, and there I'll be.'

For me, I don't think about size - I focus more on being powerful and confident.

I am just like any other woman, and I think I am the 'fattest woman alive' - but it is really about how you handle your situation.

I love that I can demonstrate that it's OK to look and be strong.

It doesn't matter my size. It's more a mindset. That's what people don't understand. It's the size the media talks about, but they don't know my heart.

Modeling is also the first job I've ever had where it's my job to love myself. While many people think that modeling would chip away at your self-esteem, it's actually bolstered mine tenfold.

Don't let anyone tell you that you're not good enough. Don't let anyone tell you that you're too short, you're too fat, you're too thin, you're too ugly - that's nonsense.

As my mom wiped the tears from my face, she said, 'Tyra, you know what we’re going to do about this? We’re going to go eat pizza.' We sat in a tiny pizzeria in Milan and strategized about how to turn my curves into a curveball. In a way, it was my decision not to starve myself that turned me into a supermodel, and later on, a businesswoman.

I have big everything on the bottom, but I love my legs. You've got to love what's yours.

I think I've evolved into someone pretty confident - in myself and in my skin.

I'm very resilient. The only thing I'm missing right now are abs.

I think that each woman, whatever age, needs to recognize something good in her body. Someone has beautiful legs, someone has beautiful hair, someone else has beautiful decolletage or a beautiful waist or beautiful hands. Everyone has something great.

We should celebrate how amazing our bodies are! We all have things that we like and dislike about our bodies, but we need to focus on what we love - maybe it's a great smile, strong legs or curly hair?

When I meet large women who walk with confidence and are articulate and really have an understanding of how they walk in this world, I love them so deeply for being able to overcome such unbelievable odds.

What I like about Rebel's style of comedy is she never plays the victim... she's never been fazed by her shape; it's just the way it is. She would mock her appearance whatever she looked like.

I make a point to never, ever point out my physical flaws... this is advice I give to women as often as I can. People don't notice the things we see in ourselves that we hate, so why direct them to it?

So instead of beating myself up for being fat, I think it's a miracle that I laugh every day and walk through my life with pride, because our culture is unrelenting when it comes to large people.

I don't have all answers, but as far as viewing my body... I'm in a place where I can look at my stretch marks and say, 'Oh, hey, stretch marks!' and I'm over it.

I encourage women to just feel good about who you are.

I just want to show off my scar proudly and not be afraid of it.