There are a lot of starlets in Hollywood that would cause great angst in my life if my daughters held them as a role model. America Ferrera, however, is not one of them. America continues to impress us with her on screen talent as well as her off screen grace, including her healthy outlook on life. She'll be the first to tell you that she's not looking to be a size zero, and that she thinks there's way too much attention placed on the way stars look. Here's more:
"And I think it’s hilarious when people call Jessica Alba or Eva Longoria curvy. Come on – they’re not curvy. I’m curvy!"
America said she was fortunate to nab the role of Betty, because she's not prepared to starve herself for her art. “I’ve been really lucky," she said. "The role has prepared me to be exactly who I am and not to change."
"And what is normal now? Is it normal to be size zero?"
She continued: "Starving yourself is not beautiful.”
Three words: You go girl!
Yves Saint Laurent
I've never watched the show, but I still feel like she looks like she's lost weight! I consider her Normal, not curvy, but yea compared to all the starving starlets, she's curvy I guess. But compared to the rest of the world, she's perfectly normal. She' seems like a good, down to earth girl.
1I agree with her! I've always found it funny when people talk about Jessica Alba's curves... come on!!
2(applauds)
3Yes, applauds to you, America!!!
I love her, btw - and Ugly Betty. What a GREAT show!
4haha jessica alba curvy that is kinda funny!
5So true! I just saw Jessica on Ellen the other day and she is not curvey at ALL!!!
6She is like a toothpick
She's cute. I've never seen her show.
7Love her.
Anyone know where one could buy that T-shirt? I love it.
8she's so right! i even remember kiersten dunst calling herself curvy! um, yeah, ok
9AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10Di75, you're in luck!
FabSugar did a guide to her outfit, check it out here.
11She is a great role model, and that is why I adore her!
12If yall haven't seen Ugly Betty, you really should rent the first season and start watching it. It's a great and positive show. And it's freakin' hilarious!
I like her too. I can't understand how they make her look so unattractive on the show!
13I loooooooooooooooove her!!! She looks so down to earth and she's super cute!!! Ugly Betty Rocks!!!!
14I ♥ America!
15She is a great actress and not at all fat, she look very good and slim, i think Hollywood standards are crazy!!
Women are not supposed to be skin and bones
16I have always loved America. I first saw her in Real Women Have Curves. An inspiration to young women everywhere...if you ahve not seen this movie, Netflix it ASAP!
17I really don't like the show, but I appreciate her being a good role model and not trying to fit into a size 0.
18Thank you so much, Fit!
19OMG, that T-shirt is $82! LOL! Ah well.
20i have no idea who she is but she's looks fine. i mean, she's wearing a t-shirt so it's really hard to tell. i wouldnt' call her curvy though, probably just average.
and anyway, in hollywood "curvy" = "boobs"
21**hooray**
22She's a sexy woman~
23I love America & Ugly Betty but she has become thinner so I don't think she falls into the curvy category anymore- she's healthy and looks like a normal girl
24Beyonce is curvy!
She's so right! I've always liked this girl so it's nice to see her included in the posts and not more of the typical posted here, skinny women trying to brain wash people into thinking their curvy...and some silly people buying into it. If I can see someones ribcage that is not curvy.
25i guess i'm in the minority b/c i don't like ugly betty (nor do i really care about america). that out of the way, while i do think it's great she embraces her figure, even with the weight she's lost, she still looks a bit overweight to me. perhaps she's been losing weight in an effort to get down to a healthy BMI and kudos to her for that. but, frankly, i'm getting a little tired of all the skinny bashing. while some take dieting to extremes (see renee zellweger, among others), eva and jessica have (for the most part) always been petite, though each could stand to gain about 5 lbs.
i think that stars who are outside the healthy BMI range (both the upper and lower limits) should refrain from insulting others. and besides, since when can't a petite woman have curves. i watch eva prance around in her underwear on desperate housewives, and she has a tiny waist in proportion to her bust and hips, plus she has a tush...in my book, that equals curvy.
there's been a riveting discussion on the skinny website regarding this very topic: http://theskinnywebsite.com/site/2007/10/23/america-ferrera-on-being-cur...
ok, since i'm clearly in the minority, let the bashing begin.
26"I have always loved America. I first saw her in Real Women Have Curves. An inspiration to young women everywhere...if you ahve not seen this movie, Netflix it ASAP!"
I agree,good movie but the lack of an end made me mad! It might just be me but the end didn't seem like an ending at all.
27I agree with purrtykitty: I am so sick of the skinny bashing! I think being "curvy" means you have a nice hourglass shape with a small waist and wide hips. America's waist looks about as big as her hips, and I don't think she looks curvy at all. "Curvy" nowadays seems more a euphemism for overweight or fat. Marilyn Monroe is the ultimate "curvy" icon, and her waist was like 23" and she's nowhere near America's size. I am all for a healthy body image, but I think America can project this without singling out or commenting on other women's bodies.
28BTW, the vilified "size 0" is the SAME in terms of measurement as a vintage size 6-8. Do you think people were bashing size 6-8 women back in the 50s? I think not. *eye roll*
29so, puddinpie, then the perfect size 6 that women aimed for in the 50s is the equivalent of the "perfect" size 0 many women aim for today. i guess the quest for a tiny figure has gone on for decades, and it's just the numbering that has gotten smaller, not the measurements.
30purrty - while I applaud your willingness to lay out your thoughts here (read: brave!) do you not think that the media bombarding us with women who have a BMI that is unhealthy on the LOW side effects how we see the female frame now? Could she possibly look heavy to you because we don't really have many examples of slim women who aren't overly slim? It's just that in my experience, a lot of the slim women that we see in media are in fact underweight and not in a healthy BMI range. I guess unless every woman posted her BMI we don't really know for sure though. I think she looks great.
I don't think she was bashing Eva and Jessica. I think she was saying how funny she finds it that these slim women are labeled curvy for having boobs or a butt when she's got thighs and a tiny tummy pouch.
31kiddy, i would agree that the media is partly (maybe even mostly) to blame for skewed views of women's bodies. i'm simply guessing that her BMI is a bit over the healthy range because i'm comparing my body to hers. i'm at the higher end of the healthy BMI range, and my body is considerably slimmer than hers is (i'm also keeping in mind that women carry weight different, but she seems to carry quite a bit in her midsection). but without her stats, i agree there is no way to know for sure where she falls, and the same rings true for eva and jessica.
32Well put purrty! Have you seen that site that shows a bunch of people of varying heights and weights and how one person at 5'3" & 125 looks vastly different from another even at 5'4" and 126? It's really interesting in seeing how different our bodies really are!
33my new hero!!
34no, i haven't seen the site, but i'm sure it's interesting. i'd bet it would be a good therapy tool for persons with bdd...so they can actually see that even if they attain the weight of a specific person who's at or near the same height, they still probably won't end up with a body like that person.
35purtyktty: Yes, it does seem that a modern day size 0 (vintage size 6 or so), or in other words, a 24" waist has been the "ideal" for some time (at least since the 1940s or so), although nowadays, the disparity between what is "average" and what is the "ideal" is getting larger and larger because our nation is heavier than ever before. Yes, there are some Hollywood starlets who look unnaturally thin, but at the same time, I don't think the majority of them are as thin as we make them out to be. Surely, there were plenty of very slender stars in the 40s-80s as well. I think a lot of us have become accustomed to seeing people with expanding waistlines and our perception of what is "normal' or "healthy" is actually 20-30 lbs. overweight.
36i totally agree, puddin...and that's where the skinny bashing comes in. i'm guessing that overweight americans find it easier to find fault with those that are within normal limits than to lose the pounds themselves.
37I love her, I think she is a great role model
38Actually, most actresses have an unhealthy body weight. Most lack a proper amount of body fat. Plus, the images we see make the actresses look a lot fatter than they are, so we aren't even seeing a clear picture of them in photos.
America in this picture is probably in the middle of her healthy bmi range. And she's even tinier than the image lets on.
I am 5'8" and I found out that my healthy weight range is somewhere between 132lbs and 150lbs. Even when I was 125lbs I had chunky thighs, and a slightly round belly, and I would have been considered under a healthy weight.
It's all relative. But it is true, that fat mostly carried around the midsection is more unhealthy than fat on the lower abdomen and thighs.
You guys are warped, though, to think most Hollywood actresses are at a healthy weight. Most of them wouldn't even hit the low end of what a doctor would consider appropriately healthy for their bone density and height.
39I Love America, and watching "Ugly Betty". I admire her for being healthy and if a size zero is not a weight for her then so be it-what is right for one person is not necessrily right for everyone else.She is comfortable in her own skin and I think that is beautiful in itself.
40"She is comfortable in her own skin and I think that is beautiful in itself."
I guess THAT is when you're at the right weight. Forget all the number-cracking. Nicely said
41America is a cute girl and seems to be smart and kind. How about that? However, she has probably actually met Jessica Alba in person and has seen whether she is "curvy" or not. I do know that you cannot tell a person's BMI by looking at them, so quit trying to say whether hers is healthy or not. Did any of you see the Project Runway where the doctor evaluated the girls and they were ALL terribly under-weight,except one who was under pressure to lose more weight. She was the only one that was within a healthy weight and the doctor actually said she was perfect. And she looked good, but the agency people were trying to get her to lose weight because the fashion folks refused to use her on the runway and didn't like her much in pictures either. Stuff like that (and it's much the same for the actresses in Hollywood) is what people are rebelling against. Not people who are naturally thin. They are lucky. I agree with America that depriving yourself is NOT beautiful. We only live once, why torture ourselves through the whole thing. There is a middle ground. Last thing: Marilyn's official measurements through the years - Height 5' 5 1/2", Weight 118-140, Bust 35-37 inches, Waist 22-24 inches, Hips 35 to 37 inches, Bra size 36D. But take someone like Elizabeth Hurley who is 3 1/2 inches taller with similar measurements and she is going to look WAY thinner. Marilyn looked healthy. America looks healthy too.
42Sorry, not Project Runway, wrong show. I meant A Model Life. Sorry
43carmelonia: We can respectfully disagree about the weights of most actresses in Hollywood, then. I just know that I'm 115 lbs., 5'4", (therefore in the "normal" range for BMI) and wear a size 0 easily. When I was at Madame Tussards where they have those celeb wax models made from real-life measurements of the actual celebs, none of the celebs looked much smaller than me (except for the ones of Sarah Michelle Gellar, who looked around 10 lbs. thinner, and the one of Angelina Jolie, who was very slender.) I know one would have to be under 108lbs. to be considered "underweight" at 5'4", so I have trouble believing most actresses are very underweight. Of course, there are the exceptions like Angelina, Nicole Ritchie, and Mary Kate, but I don't think there are very many girls who strive to look like these starlets anyway. It seems (to me, at least) that most people find bodies that are slim but also healthy the most attractive, like Jennifer Aniston, Eva Mendes, and Halle Berry. I don't think wanting to be as fit as these actresses is an unhealthy thing.
44I love America and I agree with her.
45So true: Skinny women as Eva Longoria or Jessica Alba are not curvy! They are so freaking flat!
46I love the fact that she and Sara Ramirez are both so comfortable in their own skin. They are great role models not only for young Latina women but for young women everywhere.
47I think that America is right BUT now that she has started Ugly Betty she seems that she has lost weight!!! And when Jessica first came out she was curvy and had an athletic bod now she has lost weight but she still has an athletic!!!
48I think that America is right BUT now that she has started Ugly Betty she seems that she has lost weight!!! And when Jessica first came out she was curvy and had an athletic bod now she has lost weight but she still has an athletic!!!
49I don't like the "skinny bashing" trend that's going on either. I don't think MOST actresses are underweight or too skinny, but in comparison to the average American, maybe they are. I don't really agree with the whole "Real Women Have Curves" thing either. I'm a real woman and I'm not super curvy, so what gives? I'm not saying it's bad to be curvy, but you can be athletic-looking and slender and still be a woman.
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