Tyra Banks: I Used to Get Told I Was Too Fat

Tyra Banks used to get letters saying she was "too fat" when she was a size six.

The America's Next Top Model host has spoken out in support of Vogue magazine's anti-eating disorders initiative and she has slammed fashion designers for only hiring skinny models.

"When I was a model I was a four and then I started to become curvy and became a six and I got so many letters saying I was way too big and fashion designers were telling me I was fat. My mom got letters from designers saying they are not going to hire me anymore," she said.

The 38-year-old supermodel recalls being shocked at seeing models so skinny they had developed lanugo, a fur that can appear when a person is malnourished, and she is grateful to the publication's campaign for highlighting some of the issues in the fashion industry: "This is a really big deal as it's been an unspoken rule in my opinion that the fashion industry says it's OK to be as skinny as you can just as long as you can walk and you don't faint. I would see girls that had lanugo on their skin, a duck-like fur that comes on your body when you're anorexic when you're body is screaming out for warmth."

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