SIZE IS PLUS FOR MODEL CALLIE

Catwalk star happy she let go of obsession to be thin

PLUS-SIZE model Callie Thorpe has revealed that she has gone from being “addicted” to weight loss laxative teas to happiness and modelling for Vogue. The Instagram star, who has 165,000 followers, spent her youth obsessed with losing weight.

By 2012 Callie was stuck in a cycle of oppressive diets.

“I got really addicted to laxative teas,” the 28-year-old said.

Size 24 Callie, who has modelled for online clothing superstore ASOS, said she was “a mess”.

“I would be having agonising cramps in my stomach and my body started rejecting oil and I was always in pain,” she said.

“My boyfriend was like, ‘You have to stop this, this is not good.’”

Callie was an average-sized child. Than a steroid prescription in her teens for asthma caused her to gain weight.

Cruel classmates nicknamed her “Calorie”.

Once an elderly woman in a post office told her: “You’re too overweight and you’ll never find a man or be successful if you don’t lose it.”

After that exchange Callie said she was “crushed”.

“After that I started an online diet diary,” said Callie, who’s from Newport but lives in London.

“I thought it would help me lose weight if I was accountable to people.

“I thought it would be the last time I would have to lose weight. And then I would be happy and successful.

“But I was just writing about how I did not like myself.”

On holiday in Barbados Callie stumbled across a blog by American plus-size designer Gabi Gregg. It was a turning point. “She was online and wearing a bikini,” Callie said.

“I had never seen a bigger woman wearing something like that so comfortably.”

Callie realised a positive attitude was vital.

“My diet diary was so bad and it was not getting me anywhere,” she said.

“I had to change my attitude.”

She ditched her diet blog and launched a new one called From The Corners Of The Curve.

That charted her journey toward embracing her size.

She was still self-conscious but was learning to be kinder to herself.

She started wearing clothes she had thought were off limits for overweight women.

Prints, jumpsuits, dungarees and crop tops were all on the table but that was “just the beginning” for Callie.

“Now I encourage people to live happy healthy lives by focusing on their mental health,” she said.

“I’ve just partnered with Nike on their plus-size line to show other women about plus-size exercise and how to feel positive about doing exercise.”

After she started her new blog things “snowballed” and she is now firmly involved in the world of fashion. “It’s been amazing,” she said. “I have signed with a model agency called Milk Management and I consult for plussize fashion brands.

“I’m really proud of myself and really happy I decided to let go of my obsession with being thin.”

In 2016 Callie became the first plus-sized columnist for Marie Claire.

Since then she has graced the pages of Vogue. “I was in Vogue where I was featured as part of a bikini round-up,” she said. “That got a lot of press but I also got a lot of negative reaction, a lot of hate. “I had to call the police and they found it was linked to a forum called Fat People Hate. “They were saying I was too fat to be in Vogue. “There were people saying I was disgusting, I was a whale, and that I should be dragged along a road by a car. “After that Vogue asked me to write a piece about online abuse so I had my first byline in Vogue.” That was last year. Callie’s younger self would never have believed where life would take her. “I would h a v e laughed and said ‘You’re mad ,’ s h e said. “I’m just a g ir l from Newport – I grew up in S haf t - esbury and Pill.

“I wou ld never have dreamt I would be doing this.

“I’m married now and I am so happy. I’ve never been happier in my life.”

Callie said a person’s weight should not “impact on how successful you become”.

“There are different people with different body shapes doing great things but there is such a negative attitude to weight,” Callie added.

“There are health issues but being horrible to obese people is not going to help.”

The change in her life has been “a mad, wild journey”.

“I have been loving it,” she said.

“It’s kind of a middle finger to the boys who picked on me in school.

“I’d say to people they should be kind because you never know how your words are going to affect people.”