I lost a lot of weight: 17 kilos. I had too high a fat percentage, it was not healthy anymore but now it is fine, it is good for assignments and shoots, now I have more work. I'm a model for photographers, artist, sculptors. It is something different - most modeling I do is for glamour and artistic nudes, through the eye of males as they want to see it, the "babe" look, so this project is different, it looked like a nice project so why not volunteer?
In Holland, a lot of men are not interested in size zero. They are interested in a more normal body. I like food as well, a glass of wine with dinner. I'm not going to give all that up for a size zero that actually a lot of men don't like. I'm happy with it the way it is. Is that a Dutch thing? In Holland it depends on the magazines. A high-fashion magazine uses catwalk models, very skinny. But in a Dutch Playboy or other men's magazines, the sizes are bigger, more normal. A tall skinny model is very nice if you want to showcase your clothes, it looks nice but it is not healthy. The models who do pose for these magazines are very young and very much on a diet, more than is good for them.
The young girls in Holland do not look at fashion magazines, they look at the young girls' magazines, with younger teenage models. The models are not as perfect, not as polished, not as skinny, not supermodels. They are still young girls, more normal. And they also are now using a different Barbie in the Dutch stores. A more normal shape, with smaller breasts and a bigger stomach, a normal hip/thigh/ratio. It is especially done for the small girls, so they don't identify with the prototype that you cannot achieve. This happened maybe ten years ago, with a discussion: it was not good for girls, they would be less happy with their own bodies.
(Linda's website)
