Iskra Lawrence Quotes

My visibility may have gotten Hollywood to redefine what's attractive.

To go from hating the way I looked to being a 'Cosmo' centerfold is a profound honor.

I did an internship with Dove when they were doing the 'real beauty' campaign, and I was really inspired by that. Growing up in L.A., being a young woman, and seeing how the media tells young women to be everything you're not, I kind of wrote about that experience.

I am not my skin. I am a model with a skin condition.

Growing up, I didn't really watch the Victoria's Secret fashion show too much. I really just saw folks who weren't real to me, so it didn't really interest me.

Once I realized, when I became a plus-size model, that there were more women like me, my confidence immediately shot through the roof.

I didn't even aspire to be a model because I didn't see myself represented, even as simple as the freckles on my skin.

It's wrong for women to be constantly shy and embarrassed about their bodies. There are so many images of unattainable beauty that are so destructive. It's important to show how your body really is. As the cliche has it, beauty comes from within.

I say this in the spirit of feminist encouragement, but I think I'm pretty hot. I've got all the facial features, facing the right way, at the right end, and you can always paint over the bad bits with makeup.

I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that.

After 'Freaks and Geeks,' I dealt with several producers who wanted to cover up all my beauty marks, every single mole on my body. They tried to cover them on my first two episodes of 'Dawson's Creek,' and it just looked ridiculous, so I had to put my foot down. But it's not something I'm insecure about.

I certainly used to wish that I was skinny, lighter-skinned, with long, pretty hair. But only because I used to get made fun of for being the absolute opposite. I didn't see all of that stuff as the American Dream. I just wanted to look normal. Now that I'm older, I really do feel like I am a beautiful girl.

I am not one of those fat birds who feels miserable because models are thin. Frankly, I feel more insulted by the idea that unless I see other fat birds in fashion magazines, I will be reduced to a sniveling wreck of a human being.

Women of every age and size really just want to look sexy, while retaining their power and dignity.

I knew I wanted to have a doll of myself on the cover. I thought, I wanna see myself as a Ken doll.

I never thought I was pretty enough. I was kind of tall and lanky. I don't mind it now, but back in the day I hated it. I would tell myself that what I think is ugly at 17 is actually what's going to be pretty about me later.

I don't want to have to be pretty. I don't want to have to be adorable.

I feel I'm such a big part of that insecurity that some girls might have because of my job, that girls think they have to be that picture. And even boys, they think that that picture exists, and it's so frustrating because I don't look like that picture - I wake up not looking like that picture.

I never let the media dictate my identity, so the fact that I'm a size 14 or a size 2 or a size 8 or a size 4, I kind of rock and roll. It doesn't matter to me.

If there was going to be a pioneer of the plus-size girl of my shape on TV, why not me?

One cabbie chastened me by saying that the fashion industry was doing harm to young people, who are trying to live up to an unrealistic ideal. It prompted me to make body image and diversity key issues on 'The Business of Fashion.'

I just think about little me - what it would have meant to me to see a chubby girl in movies and a big girl get the guy and be the princess, be the hero. I think that would've really changed a lot for me.

I look in the mirror, and I'm a plus-size girl, but I got it going on.

Girls shouldn't be worried about their cellulite or their rolls. Or anything that makes us real.

I just want to send the best message possible to women. And I'm just so thankful because I honestly never thought I could model. I've always been told I wasn't tall enough, I wasn't thin enough.