By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: Healthy is the New Skinny

Bo Stanley (pictured, left) is a pro surfer, sponsored by Billabong, and an athletic Size 8. But she was told that nobody wanted to see her in a bikini.

“I would have sponsors tell me ‘You’re not skinny enough, you can’t model for us.’ ‘You’re pretty, but you can’t model for us.’ They just said ‘Look, if you’re a Size 3, we’ll promote you! We’ll put you in ads, you’ll be our main rider.'”

Katie Halchishick (pictured, below) was a plus size model, but she didn’t feel healthy at a Size 14.

“I lost 50 pounds and then I lost all my clients. I was making six-figures and that went way down! I was like, how does this make any sense? When I’m at my healthiest and I’m feeling my best, I’m not valued at all.”

So Katie started a campaign called Healthy is the New Skinny and this week alone, Katie, Bo and many others will speak to 10,000 kids in the Puget Sound region about being happy and healthy no matter what their size.

“We didn’t know how girls would react when we had the first assembly, and I think that’s what really changed everything for us. We were like ‘This is so common sense, they’re going to think we’re stupid’ because high school girls are mean and boys are mean. That’s not at all what happened. There were girls in tears and there were guys that came up to us and said a lot of really amazing things. The principal was in tears. It’s something that’s deep rooted pain.”

They also take along Coleman and Chris, a couple of young musicians who perform at the assemblies and talk to the teenage guys about respecting women.

Katie said she learned first hand that people are bullied for being too big or too small.

“It just creates this really vicious, nasty cycle amongst women where it’s big versus small. So if you are smaller, women will be like ‘She’s anorexic!’ There are naturally petite women too and it doesn’t mean someone is anorexic! Or they’ll be like ‘She’s unhealthy, she’s a Size 14.’ I’ve worked with girls that are six feet tall, athletes that are size 14, and they look awesome. It’s just constant judgment from each other and it’s this ideal that no one can really attain.”

She reveals plus size model secrets, like how she had to wear fat suits so that her face looked thin, but she could still fit into larger clothes.

“Right now I’m about a size 8, so I’m still considered fat. My hips are, like, a 41 inch, they would need to be 34, which is physically impossible. If it was just my skeleton, I don’t know if it would be 34.”

Katie and Bo are young, and they speak honestly and playfully with the students, which helps get the

Katie Halchishick, founder of Healthy is the New Skinny

bully messaging across without being preachy.

“There’s something that’s so beautiful about being real and natural, and that looks so different for everybody. It’s like ‘Real women have curves.’ No! Real women don’t always have curves. Just because you don’t have curves doesn’t mean you’re not real. That’s what we’re trying to break down.”

Bo says Billabong still won’t feature her in a bikini on their website, even after she was featured in Italian Vogue. Katie has created Natural Model Management, an agency for girls of all sizes.

“We are going to take the risk of saying, ‘I might never model again’ because I’m going to speak out about this,” Katie says. “Bo might never get sponsored again, because she’s going to speak up for that. So, we have nothing to lose.”

The remaining high school tour includes:

February 8: Chimacum High and Port Townsend High Schools
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Burlington-Edison High School Evening Community Event 7pm
February 9: La Conner High School
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Sedro-Woolley High School Evening Community Event 7pm
February 10: Glacier Peak High School

There’s a free public event here, Wednesday, February 8th 7-9pm in Burlington, Washington.

Who is Rachel Belle?