Much like age, weight is a weird issue in this business. It’s okay to be skinny. It’s okay to be heavy. In a business renowned for type-casting, there are roles for the very old, the very young, the thin, the large. But in-between? A never-never land of sorts. I wear the dress size “most” American women wear. Never mind that it is a size smaller than Marilyn Monroe (or one of my idols, Jane Russell). Things today have changed. There was that time the producer of “Sex in the City” boasted that all of his stars were a size 0. For a while in my youth I tried to be one of the skinny people. I was 20 (think, actually functional metabolism). I worked out three to four hours a day. I ate 500 calories or less a day. If I slipped at all and had an actual meal, I followed it with a box of laxatives. And it got me to … a size seven. I still had curves. It’s in my makeup so to speak. Lest I forget the impact of genetics, pictures of me and my cousins show a group of women who would fit great in those 1940s dresses but seem heavy or chunky by today’s standards. Thankfully, after decades, I’ve found peace with my size. I eat intentionally, work out daily and am told by my doctor that I sit in the top 5% of the “good health” metrics. So, I’m healthy. But not svelte. And I never, ever will be. And that’s okay.
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