How Becoming 'Straight Size' Changed This Model's Career
Karolin Wolter was making a career out of modeling, with her super-slim 116-pound, 5-foot-11-inch frame. But the pressure was more than she could take.
"I did really well, but even then my agents were telling me, 'You know Karolin, next season are the spring/summer shows, you have to be even skinnier,'" she wrote in an essay about her experience for I Love You magazine.
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"At the time I honestly thought it was totally fine to weigh less than 55 kg (121 lbs.). Now... I am shaking my head, I can't quite believe it. I am not surprised it completely f**ked with my mind."
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So Wolter decided to make a change. After several years of being told to lose even more weight to improve her career prospects, the model made the decision to put on some pounds and started branding herself as a plus-size model.
"When I realized I couldn't look in the mirror anymore, I knew something was wrong," she said. "Every day the burden became heavier. Work became exhausting, I was afraid of disappointing the client.
"[But] the actual struggle was when I wasn't at work. At home, before a big job, I was absolutely useless because of the unbelievable mental pressure." So she took some time off in 2011 to regroup, coming back to her agents at her normal body weight and telling them she wanted to work as a plus-size model. But she had trouble getting work, as many clients said she was "too skinny" to be plus size. Finally, her agency rebranded her as a "straight-size" model, and now she’s never been happier.
"I am no longer pressuring myself, I try to go with the flow while keeping my priorities straight. These days I enjoy working with smaller clients ... I have earned more in the last three months than ever before."
Wolter says she couldn’t be happier that she decided to make the change. "It’s not about the label, it's about being healthy and being comfortable in your own body. There just isn't any rule. It's not about how big you are, how small you are or what label you are given. It's about how you carry yourself. If you are comfortable with your body you can sell pretty much anything."
Tell us: What do you think about the pressure to be thin as a model?
Photo: Courtesy Twitter
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