Chelsea Bonner - Body Image Warrior: An insiders fight for change in the modelling industry

Published in 2019 by Murdoch Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin

Copyright Chelsea Bonner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

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Murdoch Books UK

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 76052 381 7 Australia

ISBN 978 1 91163 225 2 UK

eISBN 978 1 76087 046 1

Cover photography by Michelle Holden

For Maria, who has asked me every week for eight years, when are you going to write a book?

Its the 2011 Miami launch of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover and I find myself at a final-night party on a luxury superyacht surrounded by stars, models and crew. Its a dizzying collection of the worlds most beautiful people, including Gigi Hadid, Chrissy Teigen, Ashley Graham, Hannah Ferguson, Rose Bertram, Chanel Iman, Bojana Krsmanovic and my own BELLA model, Robyn Lawley.

There is dancing on the oversized roof deck, the Champagne is flowing freely and everyone is in high spirits at the end of a demanding week.

Ive been to a few of these Swimsuit Issue wrap parties before and they are always fun. Everyone is letting off steam after a stressful, fast-paced week packed with nonstop make-up and wardrobe changes on the most stunning women on the planet. The shoot tends to bring out all the usual personality clashes, diva demands and unpredictable challenges that come from photographing supermodels in the outdoors, so its no wonder that the excitement and release at the wrap party is palpable. This night, however, I feel more than the usual relief and satisfaction at being involved in another edition of this iconic magazine: this year I feel exhilarated and full of hope and pride. This year is special, because its the first time in the history of the magazine that they have featured a plus-size model on the cover.

There is Ashley Graham, the unapologetically real and undeniably gorgeous American supermodel, giving one of the bestselling magazines in the USA all the sultriness, sexiness and spectacular beauty it could handle. At home in Australia, Robyn Lawley had just shot for Vogue Australia the first plus-size model in its 52-year history. The combination of these two extraordinary feats made the vindication I had been working towards for my entire career complete. Ashley and Robyn were out there representing everything I knew to be true about beauty and diversity, and they were proving it in a way that couldnt be ignored.

All my life I have fought against the idea that there is one set of requirements for feminine beauty. As a teenage girl whose body developed curves when fashion dictated that thin was in; as a young working woman who was constantly judged by society to be less worthy or capable because of her weight; as a plus-size model being forced to wear ill-fitting, baggy clothes which sent the less-than-subtle message that a larger body should be hidden; and as a successful businesswoman working in the fashion and beauty industry, being forced to watch young women ruin their health and their lives while they desperately tried to measure up to unattainable expectations set by unrealistic ideals.

I have always believed that all women deserve to feel good about themselves, no matter what size they are. Women dont deserve to be judged as less worthy or less deserving of respect and love because of their size. Beauty isnt one-size-fits-all and it was time that the fashion and beauty industries accepted that truth. Watching Ashley and my gorgeous curve model Robyn shine alongside all the other supermodels on the yacht that night felt like a paradigm shift. Perhaps we really can find a new way to see beauty. Perhaps we can all be body image warriors and the world will finally see womens beauty for what it is real.

In the spotlight. My parents at a party for all the beautiful people, Sydney 1972, two years before I was born.

I was an unusually ugly baby, according to my Nana, who wasnt one to mince words. You would have thought my squished, lopsided face and crooked neck would make me one for Nanas affection, but perhaps the contrast between my average appearance and the polished glamour of my model mother and movie-star father was too great for her to reconcile. She had been known to tell me directly that she couldnt believe two such beautiful people could produce such an ugly child. To her surprise though, I grew out of that ugly duckling stage and developed the blue eyes, blonde ringlets and dimples she had expected from birth: a right little Shirley Temple.

I was born in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Kew, just past midnight on 18th March, 1974. A Pisces baby, and a very happy one by all accounts, I was also completely innocent of any knowledge of the family I had been born into.

In Australia in the 1970s and 80s there were few couples who could outshine my genetically gifted parents. My mother, Nola Clark, was a model and my father, Tony Bonner, was one of Australias biggest television and film actors.

Mum was discovered at the age of 16, working in a Myer department store. As part of her job for the junior Miss Shop section of the store, she was often asked to try on samples of the clothes for fashion buyers. It was during one of these in-house presentations that Steve Bennett, a sales manager for fashion label Trent Nathan, spotted her and she was scouted on the spot as a model. From this moment my mothers world changed. She went from being a regular 16-year-old suburban teenager with an interest in fashion, to beauty pageants and catwalk shows around the world, winning the Quest of Quests in Sydney and going on to be first runner-up in Miss International in Japan in 1972. Mum appeared on the covers of so many magazines that Ive lost count. She became the darling of photographers and clients because of her hardworking ethic and down-to-earth nature. She landed huge national advertising jobs like the Busy Girl shampoo and hairspray campaign, which still gets her recognised in the street today. Mums modelling career saw her move from Melbourne to Sydney and then to London. Even after she and Dad were married and moved back to Australia to start a family, she continued to feature on the covers of the best-selling womens magazines. She has been a highly sought-after model throughout my entire life.

In the late 60s and 70s Dad starred in the iconic Australian TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Cop Shop and Skyways. In the 1980s he played roles in internationally lauded films like The Man from Snowy River and The Lighthorsemen,