THE PROMOTION CONTINUES FOR HUDSON’S ALBUM AND I AM LOVING IT! JENNIFER IS ON THE COVER OF BILLBOARD MAGAZINE AND SHE LOOKS THICKSATIONAL! HOWEVER I AM PISSED THAT HER LABEL IS STILL SHOWING THE ALBUM PHOTOS! AS YOU CAN SEE THAT IS THE SAME FREAKIN DRESS! CAN WE GET SOME MORE PICTURES OF JENNFIER PLEASE!

I found this very interesting.

As you may know, Whitney Thompson won the title of America’s Next Top Model on the last season of the show with Miss Tyra Banks, and is on the cover of the July 2008 issue of Seventeen Magazine.

She is considered the first plus-sized model to win the competition; or, as Tyra says the correct term is, “full figured model.”

“I’m here to change the fashion industry,” Whitney says. “And so now that I am America’s Next Top Model I’m going to use that title and do something with it…and show women today that you don’t have to look like a stick figure with breast implants to be beautiful. You know, you can have curves and a butt, and that’s good.”

This is such a huge problem with America and the fashion industry in general–it’s ridiculous that Whitney is considered plus sized. She fluctuates from a size 8 to a size 10.

The average size of women in America ranges from a 12 to 14. That’s not large, that’s average. And clothing stores that are geared towards plus sizes are usually size 16 and up (or 14 and up). So what sense does it make that Tyra and her crew would classify Whitney as full figured?? Way to go, Tyra…really changing the industry there.

As Paulina Porizkova said of Whitney at the end of the last ANTM competition, “This should not be called plus size or full figured. This should just be called beautiful.” {Source: Connie Talk}

Thickettes how do you feel about Whitney being perceived as a plus size model? Yes, the average size of a woman is a 14 however, Whitney is in an industry where the average size is a two. I can see why some will view her as a plus size model. Do you think she a thicksational member? 

Sherri reveals in the new issue of Precious Times (Christian Magazine) about her past struggles before she became a devoted Christian.

“My sister was heavy into drugs, and we would have to go and get her from crack houses,” Shepherd, 41, says.

At the time, the stand-up comic — then a Jehovah’s Witness – was “in a very physically abusive relationship,” she said. “I was sleeping with a lot of guys and had more abortions than I would like to count.”

She said her self-esteem became so low, “I felt if someone killed me, it wouldn’t even make a difference.”

But after converting to Christianity, she said, “God showed me that it would make a difference.”

(Shepherd has also said she relied on her faith to get through her split with husband Jeff Tarpley, father of their 3-year-old son. During their seven-year marriage, Tarpley cheated on her and got another woman pregnant.)

Still, Shepherd admitted it is tough talking religion on the popular ABC chat-fest. (She received criticism after she once remarked that ancient Greeks persecuted Christians, even though Christ hadn’t been born yet.)

“Oh, sometimes I say, ‘Lord, Juanita Bynum or Joyce Meyer would be so good at this table. They could lay hands on Barbara Walters and get her saved,’” she said.

“I ask the Lord, ‘Why am I here?’” Shepherd added. “I have to trust God when He says, ‘Because I said so.’” {Source}

I’m happy that Sherri decided to speak about her past. In a world that expects celebrities to be perfect, it’s good to see that she has chosen to tell the world where she use to be and how it is possible to get to where she is at today if you have faith.

Toccara is featured in Ebony Magazine’s August issue as a Sexy Single.

“Dating can be difficult when your star is on the rise. Ever since Toccara Jones stole the show on America’s Next Top Model and went on the Celebrity Fit Club, she’s been getting more popular with the fellas. They think the new slimmer Toccara is lovely, but they haven’t yet worked up the nerve to ask her out. “I have this big personality, and when I like something I go after it full throttle, full charge,” she says. “I guess it comes off intimidating…It is hard dating. I’m this girl from Dayton, Ohio, and just being me, and I try to meet a guy and they’re like, “Oh-my-god. Toccara.” The svelte model recently lost a few dress sizes and wowed America by posing for a magazine in a skimpy little oufit. Some of the female fans are upset about her weight loss, especially since she started out as a plus-size model and gave hope to full-figured Sisters everywhere. Still, many continue to find her an inspiration. THE TYPE OF MAN TOCCARA PREFERS: “He’s gotta be tall and have some meat on his body. I don’t want no skinny man. I want someone to pick me up. They gotta have a good job. I am not old enough to be a sugar mam. So sorry, boo, call me in a couple of years.”

I know that’s right Toccara! I also need a man with meat on his bones! I can definitely understand Toccara. I have a big personality as well and men can find that intimidating but WHATEVER a real man who wants you for the right reasons will still step his game up! LOL! 

Now I don’t understand why some would have a problem with Toccara losing weight. She is still bigger than your average model so the industry still considers her plus size. However I was disappointed with her on Celebrity Fit Club Boot Camp. If she was comfortable with her size I didn’t understand her purpose for going on the show. Regardless, Toccara is still a Thickette! She still reps for us and doesn’t deny us. Trust me she will never forget her struggles as a Thicksational Model! Hope you find the man of your dreams girl!

It could sound insensitive to describe the size-18 Darrianne Donnelly as a larger-than-life character. But the woman who converted a big frame and even bigger personality into big commercial success isn’t likely to quibble.

The founder of the Terrey Hills-based Big Gals Model Agency is one of the real pioneers of the plus-size modelling movement in Australia. She was one of the first larger models to hit the catwalk after she managed to talk her way into the industry, then set up the country’s first dedicated plus-size agency 12 years ago.

In those 12 years she has spoken to hundreds of girls who dream of becoming models, but apparently it was never a dream she shared at the same age despite growing up on a diet of comments such as: “Darrianne has such a pretty face, she could be a model if only she lost some weight.”

She was 30 and had two of her three children when her thinking changed.

“Iwas shopping at Chatswood and I stopped to look at a fashion parade where they had shop assistants modelling the clothes and I thought, `My goodness, they’re the same size as me. I could do that job.”

” I thought if someone was actually trained to walk properly as a big girl and the clothes fitted like they should, then maybe there was an opportunity there, so I approached the compere after the show and she said, `Fabulous, let’s get you trained up’.”

Darrianne Donnelly now professes to be very comfortable with her 178cm height and evenly-proportioned shape but the journey to self-acceptance clearly wasn’t easy. “Growing up, it was very difficult because, being the bigger girl, I was never picked to be in the team or in the performance,” she said.

” There were many occasions when I just used to cringe. I had to buy my school shoes in the boys’ department because they never had shoes big enough in the girls’ department and I couldn’t buy my first pair of jeans until I was 15.”

For someone with a real interest in fashion, the lack of choices for bigger sizes which she is pleased to say has changed dramatically in the past decade was endlessly frustrating.

“The classic example was my own wedding,” she said. “I went to shop after shop to try on bridal gowns but they had no samples in my size. At that stage I was 14-16, so I had to take my size eight friend to try them on and then envisage what they would look like on me.”

She said through all that, her naturally outgoing personality and her self-esteem took some big hits, but they were never entirely squashed and eventually things began to change.

“I think I probably looked in the mirror one day and decided I wasn’t going to make my life a misery based on what other people thought I should be or look like,” she said. “I think the process happens over a period of time where you start to realise there is more to life than wasting your head space on what you have been given.”

{Source}

This article is truly inspirational:

Barbara Paula looks nothing like a “classical ballerina”, but when she speaks of dancing on the stage, her face glows with confidence. ‘I always wanted to be a dancer, but I was heavy and never had the opportunity,’ she said. Paula is a member of Havana’s Danza Voluminosa, a group of plus-sized Cuban women who have become a well-established and respected troupe on the active Cuban arts circuit. Their performances draw large audiences and favorable reviews, challenging stereotypes about beauty and the arts.
Founder and choreographer Juan Miguel Mas, 42, came up with the idea in 1996, drawing on his own experience as a heavy-set dancer entranced by modern dance.
“The first performance was received with a lot of expectation and reservations,” he said. “The house was full and some people laughed, but others applauded. At the end, there was a big debate about whether it was appropriate for the stage and whether it was aesthetic or not. But we have continued, and we are breaking down barriers.”
The group has become quite popular in Cuba, its members’ girth something of an anomaly in a country where food is expensive, rationed and at times scarce. Members of the six-woman troupe weigh between 200 and 300 pounds. Their art is also experimental, somewhat unusual in a country where many artists hold closer to classical and indigenous forms.
“This January we shared the stage with three thin dancers in a production called Alliances,” Mas said. “We looked for alliances between these types of bodies, in the end creating one body with the bodies of six dancers. It was a call for respect of our differences, not just between body types.”
With more than 30 dancers trained over the past 11 years, Mas keeps his regular company at six performers and enjoys no shortage of interest from women wanting to join the group. He also has no problems scheduling performances.
“Most of our dancers are afraid to appear in public the first time, but their confidence grows when they see the audience’s reactions,” he said. “And while that first audience laughed at the idea, now it’s different. People come now to the theater with expectations to see a serious work. It’s serious and professional.” Source

Thicksational Lady Jill Scott will cover the June collectors edition of Essence Magazine

She can do NO wrong! Simply gorgeous!

Harpo Inc. is named BE100s Company of the Year!

On Friday, May 16, BLACK ENTERPRISE will name Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Inc. its 2008 BE100s Company of the Year. The announcement will be made before an audience of nearly 2,000 African American businesspeople and entrepreneurs at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by General Motors in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Winfrey is not just a talk show host and more than a mere business woman. She is a legend, an icon–but mostly, a mentor. Her unprecedented success in American business serves as the undisputed blueprint for many minority entrepreneurs. Her leadership has broken down barriers; her business instinct the stuff of legend; and her innovation unprecedented. She has spent her entire career beating the odds–and has inspired millions of business-minded minorities in the process.

I love Lady O! Check out more here

Photos from: Urban Hoopla
Jill Scott posed nude for the upcoming issue of Allure Magazine!

Jill’s comment on the photo:

“nobody ever celebrates women whose bodies are bigger than a size 8. But here I am, naked in a magazine at size 16. I hope that I can be an inspiration to all women. We’re all beautiful, each and every one of us.”

Preach it Jill!

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