Crystal Renn takes on critics of her startling weight loss

Famous plus-size model Crystal Renn has been laying low after losing enough weight to put her below the threshold of "average-figured". New York recently caught up with the stunning runway star, who is recently divorced and holed up in Brooklyn, about her dramatic weight loss and her love of latex outfits. More, please.

She tells the magazine that there's one simple reason she's not longer so curvy: she's no longer afraid of exercise. For years, exercise reminded her of her first health crisis, which occurred soon after a modeling scout told Renn to lose approximately one-third of her body weight in order to "make it" in the industry. Renn did, causing a major illness. Soon after, Renn started eating healthy again... but this time, she avoided the exercise regime that had nearly killed her.

Instead, she became a plus-size hero, although that period of her career seems to be over. Now, she's a skinny model in a league of skinny models: 

How do you feel about people saying you may have lost too much weight?
But then if I gained weight for them, that would be called a binge-eating disorder. And, you know, a lot happened to me in the last year. About a year and a half ago, I had a lot of personal things going on. And I went hiking and I wanted to get my shit together. I wanted to take care of myself. It had been eight years since I’d worked out. I’d suffered an eating disorder and I used to exercise eight hours a day. But I’d recovered. It’s time to change things, to give it a chance again. I guess you could say that through my life changes and what was going on, I wanted to make some changes in my life and taking care of my health was one of them. [NY Magazine]

The rest of the interview is fascinating, touching on nudity, dropping from a size 12 to a size 8, Vogue, backpacking, Karl Lagerfeld and lingerie tips. Really, I wish I could run every word of it.