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This month, Glamour's June cover features three models in swimsuits bearing the headline "Curvy? Skinny? It's All Good!" with an accompanying feature on the models and a sexy summer swimsuit spread inside.

Glamour makes an interesting pitch: One of the women is sought-out plus-size model Crystal Renn, one is a 29-year-old mother who was one of Prada's token "curvier" models at their spring show, and one is a traditionally beautiful Sports Illustrated model who is blond and has "big boobs" and is married to tennis pro Andy Roddick. Only problem: It's a little hard to tell which model is supposed to be plus-size.

Attribute it to the lull between cups of coffee, but this writer had to check the caption and verify hair colors to distinguish: "Oh, that's Crystal Renn." If one closely scrutinizes the cover photo, one can see that Renn is a little larger than the other women ... but not at all large enough to devote the magazine's cover to making a point. (In fact, an outline of Renn's ribcage peeks out on the cover photo.)

Memo to Glamour: There is really nothing revolutionary or subversive about running photos of three hot models in swimsuits, with long hair, big boobs and undimpled, cellulite-free legs.

Besides, this Glamour feature feels like a repackaging of previous spreads and features on loving your body at every size that the mag ran in February, last November, last September and last May. This isn't a huge problem -- Cosmopolitan, for example, is definitely guilty of recycling their sex advice -- but just as Cosmo has sex tips, is Glamour's preaching of the importance of using a wide variety of models, then running photos of small to average-size women becoming their calling card?

After all, if the magazine really wanted to make a splash, here's what they could do: Round up their skinny model, their slightly curvier model, and their version of a plus-size model; feature a fashion spread with women in swimsuits; and then simply not make a huge deal about having one model who looks like your average 20-something (except with better facial symmetry and less cellulite). Or they could invite Lane Bryant model Ashley Graham, whose sexy lingerie commercial was recently censored by ABC, to join in and not make a big deal out of having a size 16 in the mix.

To give Glamour some credit, it's great that they're not making like Ralph Lauren and showing us Photoshopped photos of models whose heads appear wider than their waists or putting Heidi Montag on the cover to talk more about her 10 plastic surgeries in one day.

But Glamour readers seem to be expecting more. On the Web version of this month's cover story, the third commenter on the post, named "Conflicted" wrote:

"It's disappointing how thin Crystal is. For a cover and editorial supposedly showing variety, there is actually very little body variety here. Crystal doesn't even look like a size 12 (and a size 12 is pretty small anyway). If you'd used at least a size 16, like the model in the Lane Bryant commercials, that would have offered an actual range of figures."

Minutes later, a fourth commenter wrote:

"I have to admit I'm disappointed with this as well. Crystal is very beautiful, but there truly is very little variety here. As for the 'curvier' models at fashion shows, it seems to me that it was just skinny women with large breasts. It would be nice to see a woman with some hips or booty every once in a while!"

Crystal Renn -- that's her as she appears in the shoot, above -- herself told Glamour, "Women will accept themselves when they see more [body] types ... This is the new normal." And she's right: She looks like a normal, healthy woman, which means there's room for models a little smaller -- and a lot of room for models larger -- than she is.

Don't worry, Glamour -- there's more than enough space on your cover for a size 16.


Liz Funk is a New York–based author, freelance writer and speaker. Her first book, "Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls" was published last year by Simon and Schuster.








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