Hungry

At fourteen, I was a regular junior high school student in Clinton, Mississippi, when a modeling scout told me: You could be a supermodel. And then: But you'll have to lose a little weight. For glamour, fame, and escape, I lost 70 pounds.

This is a photo of me at sixteen, when I signed a big modeling contract, moved to New York City, and started traveling around the world. It is also when I developed a ferocious case of anorexia and exercise bulimia, and began to lose my hair, develop frequent bruises, and experience frequent heart palpitations. And still my body refused to remain a size zero. As my weight rebelled, my mania escalated. I experimented with diet drugs and fainted between casting calls, slumping to the sidewalk of Madison Avenue.

Until one day I realized that if I wanted to live, I could no longer starve. I had to get off the crazy-making treadmill. I had to nourish my body and feed my soul. So I ate. And ate. And I returned to my natural size 12 -- the size of the average American and the size I was when I really made it big.

This is a photo of me at eighteen, when I became one of the most successful models in the industry today.

Hungry charts the rise, fall, and rise of Crystal Renn, offering a behind-the-scenes peek into the modeling industry, as well as a trenchant look at our weight-obsessed culture. In this testament to the power of authenticity, Renn illustrates the ways in which the fashion industry is slowly changing and exposes the cold truths about size and sizeism.

An inspiring and cautionary tale, Hungry will resonate with anyone who has battled society's small-minded definitions of beauty.

Crystal Renn is the leading plus-size model in America. At twenty-two years of age, she has appeared in four international editions of Vogue; starred in a Dolce & Gabbana ad campaign; served as the final model in Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Spring pret-a-porter show in a diaphanous, flower-strewn gown that Gaultier designed specifically for her curvaceous figure; was the cover girl on an international edition of Harper's Bazaar; appeared on The Tyra Banks Show, The View and The Oprah Winfrey Show; and has been photographed by Steven Meisel, Ellen von Unwerth, Steven Meisel, Ruven Afanador and Patrick Demarchelier. Renn lives in Brooklyn.

Marjorie Ingall is a contributing writer at Self magazine and a columnist for The Forward. She has written for many other magazines, including The New York Times, Glamour, Redbook, Seventeen, Ms., Food & Wine, Wired, and the late, lamented Sassy, where she was the senior writer and health editor. At Sassy, she won several awards for health and social issues coverage. She is the author of The Field Guild to North American Males, the co-author of a sex-ed book for teenagers, Smart Sex and a former writer/producer at the Oxygen TV network.