Coco Rocha (22) has made a name for her self in the modeling industry not just for her face but because when at 21 and a size 4 she wasn’t getting booked for runway because when was “too big” she rallied back. Instead of starving herself to please designers and booking agents she decided to stand her ground stating “If I want a hamburger, I’m going to have one. No 21-year-old should be worrying about whether she fits a sample size.”
She became very vocal on the topic of barely there models, and vocalized a salient point, models are usually prepubescent
14-15 year olds who have yet to grow into their womanly frames, and when the curves do come the work tends to wane.
“A lot of people don’t take into account the vulnerability of these young girls,” Rocha explained. “They are children. Point closed.”
She even began a blog to talk about the fashion industry from the inside, and topics like this.
She was recently honored by Fashion Delivers, for her charity work for Strut for the Cure and sat down with the Huffington Post for an interview here is a excerpt where she is talking about body image:
HP: Has there ever been anything for you personally that was controversial or negative that made you speak up?
CR: Yeah, I think there was that, a while back, when they had mentioned that I may have been too big for the runway and took it out of context, and I was kind of upset and felt like, you know, here was the chance for me to explain something to you and you’re taking it way out of proportion. I got to say my opinion and it did even better. My blog turned into a huge phenomenon. I kind of thanked the person for getting it wrong so that I could actually say what I needed to say.
HP: In that regard, I know you’ve previously felt pressured by the industry about your size. Do you think the fashion industry is getting better with the weight talk?
CR: It gets better for those who talk about it. So when I talk about it, people realize, “She has a voice, she’s going to say something, so maybe we should worry about that and worry about Coco’s needs and wants instead of how she looks.” But the girls that don’t say much, it probably still could be hard for them. But for me, personally, I’ve made it better for myself. So I wish I could do it for all the girls and maybe one day we all can do that. But I think it really is up to the girls to stand up for themselves and have that courage to do it, and it will all be okay.