Jennifer Lawrence has laughed off suggestions that she looks "chubby" in The Hunger Games.

The 21-year-old actress - who portrays heroine Katniss Everdeen in the movie - thinks it's "hilarious" that people are suggesting she is too chunky to play the character, as she thinks it promotes an unhealthy lifestyle to young girls.

"Jennifer told me, 'This is hilarious. First, people say how so many actresses in Hollywood look anorexic, and now they are criticizing me for looking normal. Thin body images are too often adopted by young girls and women thanks to what they are constantly being shown as being attractive," a source close to the actress said.

Comments from film critic Todd McCarthy in which he referred to the Winter's Bone star as possessing "lingering baby fat" and Jeffrey Wells calling her a "big-boned lady" unleashed a torrent of furious responses from Hunger Games fans.

However, Jennifer has previously admitted she is not like other women and even missed out on a modeling job once after she took part in a game of football for a group shoot for Abercrombie & Fitch and took it so seriously that her face wasn't included in the final adverts: "All the other girls are looking cute, modeling while playing football, and my face is bright red, my nostrils are flared, and I'm mid-leap, about to tackle this girl. I'm not even looking at the camera. The other girls were like, 'Get her away from me.'"