Rejected by model agencies for being too fat, teenager Mellissa Laycy developed a lethal eating disorder. Now 22, she's curvy, confident and on the catwalk Striding down the catwalk wearing nothing but a lacy bra and matching knickers, Mellissa Laycy oozes confidence and attitude. She's achieved her schoolgirl dream of modelling. But she's not your normal stick-thin model. Mellissa is a size 16, with 42in hips and 32GG breasts. Far from hiding her curves, the statuesque blonde flaunts them and she's the star of the show at this lingerie event. With designers such as Vivienne Westwood and hot newcomer Mark Fast using 'normal' sized women to promote their clothes, curvy girls are making their mark on the catwalk from London to New York. And, just like the American supersize supermodel Crystal Renn, Mellissa is in demand because of her size 16 figure. But six years ago, it was a very different story. Mellissa was in the grip of anorexia. After spending two years starving herself, Mellissa's body had started to shut down. Her periods had stopped, her skin was lifeless and her long blonde hair was falling out. Her eating problems began at the age of 13 when, 5ft 9in tall and a size 8-10, she was rejected by a modelling agency for having too much puppy fat. Desperate to become a model, the teenager took drastic action. Surviving on just diet cola and a small plate of steamed vegetables a day, Mellissa's weight soon plummeted to just 7st. "I thought thinner had to be better, so I dieted harder," she remembers. It was all to achieve her modelling dream. But it could have killed her. Melissa and her friends used to pore over fashion magazines dreaming of becoming models. Then one of her classmates was signed up to a modelling agency. "She'd go on fashion shoots and tell us all about getting her hair and make-up done," Mellissa remembers. "It sounded so exciting." It was a world Mellissa wanted to be part of. So she convinced her mum Elaine, now 63, who had modelled in fashion shows locally in her 20s, to take her from their home in Hampshire to meet model agents in London. Excited, the teenager was convinced this would be her big break. "We saw nine agents, and every one of them said the same thing - to come back when I'd lost my puppy fat. "I was so shocked. I'd never thought I was overweight. But if the model agents said I was, then I must be. I decided to lose some weight and try again." Mellissa embarked on a strict diet, swapping junk food for fruit and veg. Within six months she'd dropped down to a size 8. She headed back to London, certain this time she had the perfect figure for modelling. Sitting in the agency offices, she compared herself to the girls on the walls. "I didn't think I was as skinny as them, but I hoped I'd lost enough weight to be taken on," she recalls. But Mellissa was still rejected. "They said I was pretty but my body shape wasn't right. To me, that meant only one thing - I was still too big. I was devastated." When her mum saw how upset she was, she begged her to drop her model dreams. "Mum said most models weren't happy. Did I really want to be like them? But I wouldn't listen," she says. Mellissa cut down her diet to barely 600 calories a day, surviving on veg, black coffee and diet drinks. "I'd take ProPlus to keep me going," she says. "Everyone dieted at school, so no one thought it was odd if I just brought in an apple for lunch." She lost another stone, but she was fixated with calories and started skipping meals altogether. "I became very deceitful. I'd shove crumbs from the toaster on to a plate and dirty a knife with butter so my parents would think I'd had breakfast," she admits. "And I'd tell Mum I wanted to eat dinner in my bedroom, then I'd flush my food down the toilet. "Food had become my enemy. It stood between me and my dream." Meanwhile, to lose even more weight, Mellissa started exercising obsessively - doing hundreds of leg lifts, stomach crunches and press-ups in her room. Every day she would study her body in the mirror to see if she looked skinny enough. "I'd pore over catwalk pictures, scrutinising models' bodies to see where I could improve," she says. By the time she was 15, Mellissa weighed just 7st 7lb and wore size 6 clothes - painfully thin for a girl of her height. By then she had downy hair on her face, her hip bones and ribcage jutted through paper-thin skin and her hair was falling out. "I couldn't sleep because my bones stuck out and hurt me when I lay down. But I was still convinced I was fat." Her parents were beside themselves with worry and her mum was often in tears. But their pleas fell on deaf ears and, by 16, Mellissa was a tiny size 4 and 7st. It was only when the head teacher noticed her dramatic weightloss and contacted her parents that they were able to convince her to see a doctor. She was diagnosed with anorexia and referred to The Priory Hospital in Roehampton for treatment. "I wasn't ready to get better, though. And my parents wanting me to didn't make any difference to me," she says. "I read on the internet about how to trick the doctors at my monthly weigh-in," she explains. "I'd wear ankle weights under my jeans to pretend I was getting heavier." Despite her illness, Mellissa managed to pass seven GCSEs and earned a drama scholarship at a college in Guildford, Surrey. But, surrounded by other confident girls her age, she felt increasingly insecure about her looks - especially when she overheard some of her classmates commenting on how skinny she was. "I was about to go into the classroom one day when I heard two girls saying I looked sick," she says. "I was so embarrassed. Had I gone too far?" Torn between wanting to look 'normal' and her fear of putting on weight, Mellissa began to binge. "I'd eat anything I could get my hands on - peanut butter, ice cream, cakes, crisps - then I'd make myself sick," she says. One afternoon, feeling miserable, Mellissa embarked on another bingeing session. After stuffing herself full of food, she made herself sick as usual. But this time, there was blood in her vomit. Panicking she'd done some serious damage, she called her parents and begged for help. "I've got to stop this," she sobbed to her dad, who answered the phone. "I need help - I'm scared." She was admitted to hospital - by now she was 2st underweight for her height. Part of her treatment included group therapy, to understand why she felt the need to diet. "I explained that I felt there was no connection between me and my body. I felt disgusted by my attempts to control what I was eating, but I couldn't stop myself." Mellissa was forced to eat three regular meals a day. "The first night they served cottage pie for dinner. I didn't want to eat it because I knew they'd be watching me closely to make sure I didn't throw up. But three nurses sat with me until I'd finished the lot. "Each mouthful was so difficult, a fight with myself. But deep down, I knew it was for my own good." With six weeks of intensive therapy, Mellissa finally accepted that she needed to get better and learn to eat again. After getting her weight up to 10st she was discharged and went back to live with her parents. They ensured she stuck to her recommended three meals a day, and Mellissa continued to put on weight. She developed breasts, hips and a curvy bottom. But she hated her new voluptuous figure. "I felt disgusted with myself," she remembers. "So I started dieting again because I still hadn't given up on modelling." After losing more than a stone, taking her to a size 10, she felt confident enough to go out for drinks with friends from school. It was at a London bar that she met Gaven Orlando, a 31-year-old property developer. "I thought he was gorgeous. He asked me out and we started dating. "I couldn't believe he found me attractive. Every time he told me I was beautiful, I just went on about how I needed to lose weight." With Gaven's support Mellissa realised she needed to get to grips once and for all with her unhealthy attitude to food. "I'd go out for dinner and just order salad and I didn't drink much alcohol. "It was difficult for him - he could see that I wasn't really enjoying myself. And I was sometimes snappy with him because I constantly felt hungry." One day, flicking through a magazine, she saw an advert for a hypnotherapist who treated eating issues. Mellissa made an appointment. "I'd had so much therapy that hadn't worked, I thought anything was worth a try," she says. At £500 for two hours, the treatment wasn't cheap, but Mellissa believes it was worth every penny. "Under hypnosis I was taught how to reassess my relationship with food," she says. "I explained I wanted to think positively about food and to see it as fuel or a treat instead of something destructive." And, to Mellissa's astonishment, over the coming weeks, she began to relax about her diet and to enjoy food. "The therapy helped me to stop worrying about my weight and to accept my natural curvy shape." Mellissa's now 12st 3lb and is a size 16. And she's never been happier. Last year, she applied to be a plus-size model. "I wasn't worried about rejection - I knew I looked good," she says. And this time, the response couldn't have been more different. "They all wanted to sign me," she grins. Choosing to join the London-based Hughes Models, Mellissa has been working ever since. "I've worked for Evans and Spanx and done magazine shoots and TV appearances, including GMTV and How To Look Good Naked," she says. "Being taken on as a plus-size model has given me a feeling of total acceptance. In a way, I'm glad I went through what I did because it got me to where I am now. "When I look at old photos of me it's like looking at another person. I can't believe how thin I was, yet I thought I was fat. In reality, I was slowly killing myself." Mellissa's friends and family all love her new look - especially Gaven. "He adores my curves," she says. "And he says my personality has completely changed - I'm upbeat and I've got more to talk about than dieting! "For the first time in my life, I love my body. Modelling could have destroyed me, but instead I'm doing it on my own terms. I still go to the gym and look after myself, but now I celebrate my body. It makes me sad when I see models who are so skinny. I know what sacrifices some of them have to make to stay slim. "But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm healthy, happy and a model." Gaven says: "Mellissa is a lot more confident now she's happy in her own skin. She's sexier now and she has curves in all the right places."'I went from anorexic teen to plus-size model'
My female best friend is 30 and, although we're very close, she never shares anything with me about her love life or relationships. I tell her everything about my life and it really annoys me that she keeps this part of her life secret from me. When I ask if she's been out with anyone or met anyone nice, she says she "doesn't do relationships", but one of our other friends saw her recently in a restaurant with a guy and they were clearly on a date. I find it really frustrating because I think friendship should mean being completely open and honest. But when I try to talk to her about it, she shuts down and says she doesn't want to discuss it. How should I handle the situation? Harita, 31, Sheffield Jo says: I've got lots of friends of all shapes and sizes, and of every orientation and persuasion. Over the years, I've learned that the key to being a good friend is accepting people for who they are and not trying to turn them into someone else. Us girls have a terrible habit of being nosy about each other's sex lives and relationships - we love a good gossip about what everyone else has been getting up to between the sheets. However, if someone doesn't feel comfortable talking about that sort of thing, then just drop it. It's cruel to keep pushing them for information they obviously don't want to share. While it can be nice to hear about your friend's relationships, if she doesn't want to discuss it then it's none of your business. If she wants to talk about this sort of thing, it's up to her - it's not for you to drag it out of her. If you're a good friend, you'll accept she's clearly not comfortable chatting about sex and relationships, for whatever reason, and leave it at that.
Taylor Momsen is not your regular teen starlet. The actress best known for her role as Jenny Humphrey in Gossip Girl is not old enough to drink alcohol, drive a car or buy cigarettes (even if she does smoke them) but she's got the ambition and attitude of a showbiz veteran - not surprising given that she has been acting since she was three. Yes, you read that right, people. Three. In fact, just one look at her CV is enough to give even the most accomplished child genius an inferiority complex. She may be sweet 16, but she has already made her name in one of TV's most popular teen dramas to date, is a lead singer in a punk rock band and has been feted as Hollywood's hottest fashionista, with designers falling over themselves to dress her. They know that what Taylor is pictured wearing today will become tomorrow's latest trend. So it makes perfect (style) sense that fashion's latest muse fronts our new-season special. But not everyone is a fan of Ms Momsen's edgy look. Some conservative types have lambasted Taylor's love of long socks, grungy tops and barely-there skirts, saying she's a poor role model for her teen fans. Not that she's bothered. "Clothes are a form of self-expression. I don't care what other people think," she says. "I've had lots of people say I'm disgraceful because I should act like a role model for other young kids but I'm not a role model. I'm an actress, I'm a singer and I don't want to be a role model. If you like me that's fantastic - but if you don't, stop giving me a hard time." When we finally catch up with her (it's taken five days to pin her down) it's in the back of her chauffeur-driven car in New York en route from a Gucci fitting to a night out with friends from her band, The Pretty Reckless. "I've always been into my own look and love what I wear," she says. "I'm not like a lot of other actresses. I don't use a stylist and mostly do my own hair and make-up. When I get dressed up I always wear what I want to. Fashion is a big part of me but I always believe it's not what but how you wear clothes. "I'm not some cute girl that's been stamped out of a Disney studio and I'm proud of that. Some people like me for it, others hate it. I'm used to that. I've had it all my life." A teen tantrum this is not. Taylor's defensive for good reason. She was just three when she started to act professionally, six when she made her big-screen debut alongside Dennis Hopper in the thriller The Prophet's Game and seven when she got the part as the lead little girl in the Jim Carrey movie The Grinch. You would expect that such amazing parts at such a young age would have been the sign of a charmed life, but Taylor - who grew up in Missouri with parents Michael and Colette and younger sister Sloane, 13, and then moved to New York aged 12 - shakes her head. "I didn't have a great childhood," she says. "I loved my family, I loved my work but I hated school. I had a really bad time. Other kids didn't like me. I didn't fit in. "Maybe a lot of people think I have a great life. I do in lots of ways, but believe me it's been pretty tough. I know a lot of girls couldn't handle everything I've been through. "The way I am in my attitude, my clothes, my music is all to do with what has happened to me in my life so far. I do what I choose, I wear what I choose, I sing what I choose and I don't care what anyone else thinks. I've had to learn to get tough enough to be like this but it's the way I have to be. "I was made fun of all the time - the other kids used to taunt me religiously. I never had a best friend." It's undoubtedly this that has led to her "trust complexes" and she's said in the past she's only close to two people. "My life was just not normal. I was in commercials, I was in TV series, then I was the Grinch Girl." And it was a hint of the wild dress sense that got her noticed more recently which set her apart from the rest of her peers too. "I dressed differently. I definitely wasn't a fashion icon at school," she admits. "I used to always wear knee-high socks and I got teased all the time. Girls would point at them and laugh. It makes me laugh now that one of my fashion statements are my knee-high stockings. Now a lot of girls think they are pretty cool. You have to admit that's ironic." These days, everyone is desperate to be Taylor's friend, but back then those dark days were terribly lonely for her. "I really wanted a friend but it just never happened," she explains. "I didn't get talked to or invited anywhere. I never got hit or anything like that. It was much more snidey and personal. "I also never got asked out once at school. I was the weird one. Maybe people thought I was stuck up, maybe they thought I was above them. I wasn't. "I was very, very unhappy at school so I moved schools a lot which didn't help matters. I guess my parents and I thought that I'd finally find somewhere where I'd be OK. But it was the same story." It's clear that Taylor is nothing like the social climbing, squeaky-clean character she plays in ITV2's super-cool US series Gossip Girl. She started out on the show when she was 13 and over three years transformed her preppy innocent character into a bit of a rock chick. "I started dressing myself for events," says Taylor. "The producers noticed and wanted to incorporate that into Jenny's wardrobe, so I was very lucky. Now if someone doesn't like what I'm wearing, I don't care." But does that extend to her nearest and dearest? Ask Taylor how her mum reacts when she steps out in revealing outfits like the black stockings and suspenders combo she wore at the Teen Vogue Block Party in New York last September, and she laughs. "There are a few occasions when she raises her eyebrows but she never tells me to get changed," she says. It comes as little surprise that Taylor's role models are outrageous rock stars. "I love people like Joan Jett and Kurt Cobain. But what I love is more about their attitude than what they wear. "I don't copy anyone in how I dress," she insists. "It bugs me when people say I'm the next Courtney Love. Number one I've never been a heroin addict like she used to be, and number two I don't look anything like her." And Taylor - who recently collaborated with US designer Jen Kao to create tour outfits for her band - doesn't take her role as a fashionista remotely for granted. "I'm so amazingly lucky because I get to go to fashion shows, I have designers giving me clothes and I can pick what I want," she says. "But I mix everything up to put my mark on it. If a designer gives me a dress I may hem it up to make it shorter - I'll make it how I want it. I'm 16, I have an opinion and I think I can go out and do what I want and wear what I want. I want to inspire other girls to follow their own ideas and not care what other people think." And like the big names before her - Agyness Deyn, Alexa Chung, Lily Allen and Pixie Geldof - Taylor recently bagged a contract as the face of New Look. But she's not just modelling the clothes. This is an opportunity to put her style spin on the whole collection. "The cool thing about the campaign was wearing clothes with my twist," says Taylor, who is currently single and who has commented in the past that she would "eat a boy my age alive". "I don't dress for men, I don't dress for boys, I don't dress for women or other girls. I dress for me." With so many years ahead of her Taylor knows only one thing about the future - that she'll be doing fashion her way. "I don't know how I'll be dressing when I'm 20 or 30, but I know it'll be my style and it won't be boring. "I absolutely love fashion because it reflects who you are," she says. "When I was a kid I always used to think: 'What would I save if my house was on fire?' Even now it would have to be my rag doll, but it would also be my guitar and my vintage leather jacket." A style statement if ever there was one. These exclusive pictures of Taylor are part of New Look's spring/summer campaign. VisitNewlook.co.uk for the full collection.‘Bullied for being uncool - now girls want my style’
She's the fash pack's latest muse, but Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen reveals how her edgy look was inspired by classroom mean girls.
Rejected by model agencies for being too fat, teenager Mellissa Laycy developed a lethal eating disorder. Now 22, she's curvy, confident and on the catwalk Striding down the catwalk wearing nothing but a lacy bra and matching knickers, Mellissa Laycy oozes confidence and attitude. She's achieved her schoolgirl dream of modelling. But she's not your normal stick-thin model. Mellissa is a size 16, with 42in hips and 32GG breasts. Far from hiding her curves, the statuesque blonde flaunts them and she's the star of the show at this lingerie event. With designers such as Vivienne Westwood and hot newcomer Mark Fast using 'normal' sized women to promote their clothes, curvy girls are making their mark on the catwalk from London to New York. And, just like the American supersize supermodel Crystal Renn, Mellissa is in demand because of her size 16 figure. But six years ago, it was a very different story. Mellissa was in the grip of anorexia. After spending two years starving herself, Mellissa's body had started to shut down. Her periods had stopped, her skin was lifeless and her long blonde hair was falling out. Her eating problems began at the age of 13 when, 5ft 9in tall and a size 8-10, she was rejected by a modelling agency for having too much puppy fat. Desperate to become a model, the teenager took drastic action. Surviving on just diet cola and a small plate of steamed vegetables a day, Mellissa's weight soon plummeted to just 7st. "I thought thinner had to be better, so I dieted harder," she remembers. It was all to achieve her modelling dream. But it could have killed her. Melissa and her friends used to pore over fashion magazines dreaming of becoming models. Then one of her classmates was signed up to a modelling agency. "She'd go on fashion shoots and tell us all about getting her hair and make-up done," Mellissa remembers. "It sounded so exciting." It was a world Mellissa wanted to be part of. So she convinced her mum Elaine, now 63, who had modelled in fashion shows locally in her 20s, to take her from their home in Hampshire to meet model agents in London. Excited, the teenager was convinced this would be her big break. "We saw nine agents, and every one of them said the same thing - to come back when I'd lost my puppy fat. "I was so shocked. I'd never thought I was overweight. But if the model agents said I was, then I must be. I decided to lose some weight and try again." Mellissa embarked on a strict diet, swapping junk food for fruit and veg. Within six months she'd dropped down to a size 8. She headed back to London, certain this time she had the perfect figure for modelling. Sitting in the agency offices, she compared herself to the girls on the walls. "I didn't think I was as skinny as them, but I hoped I'd lost enough weight to be taken on," she recalls. But Mellissa was still rejected. "They said I was pretty but my body shape wasn't right. To me, that meant only one thing - I was still too big. I was devastated." When her mum saw how upset she was, she begged her to drop her model dreams. "Mum said most models weren't happy. Did I really want to be like them? But I wouldn't listen," she says. Mellissa cut down her diet to barely 600 calories a day, surviving on veg, black coffee and diet drinks. "I'd take ProPlus to keep me going," she says. "Everyone dieted at school, so no one thought it was odd if I just brought in an apple for lunch." She lost another stone, but she was fixated with calories and started skipping meals altogether. "I became very deceitful. I'd shove crumbs from the toaster on to a plate and dirty a knife with butter so my parents would think I'd had breakfast," she admits. "And I'd tell Mum I wanted to eat dinner in my bedroom, then I'd flush my food down the toilet. "Food had become my enemy. It stood between me and my dream." Meanwhile, to lose even more weight, Mellissa started exercising obsessively - doing hundreds of leg lifts, stomach crunches and press-ups in her room. Every day she would study her body in the mirror to see if she looked skinny enough. "I'd pore over catwalk pictures, scrutinising models' bodies to see where I could improve," she says. By the time she was 15, Mellissa weighed just 7st 7lb and wore size 6 clothes - painfully thin for a girl of her height. By then she had downy hair on her face, her hip bones and ribcage jutted through paper-thin skin and her hair was falling out. "I couldn't sleep because my bones stuck out and hurt me when I lay down. But I was still convinced I was fat." Her parents were beside themselves with worry and her mum was often in tears. But their pleas fell on deaf ears and, by 16, Mellissa was a tiny size 4 and 7st. It was only when the head teacher noticed her dramatic weightloss and contacted her parents that they were able to convince her to see a doctor. She was diagnosed with anorexia and referred to The Priory Hospital in Roehampton for treatment. "I wasn't ready to get better, though. And my parents wanting me to didn't make any difference to me," she says. "I read on the internet about how to trick the doctors at my monthly weigh-in," she explains. "I'd wear ankle weights under my jeans to pretend I was getting heavier." Despite her illness, Mellissa managed to pass seven GCSEs and earned a drama scholarship at a college in Guildford, Surrey. But, surrounded by other confident girls her age, she felt increasingly insecure about her looks - especially when she overheard some of her classmates commenting on how skinny she was. "I was about to go into the classroom one day when I heard two girls saying I looked sick," she says. "I was so embarrassed. Had I gone too far?" Torn between wanting to look 'normal' and her fear of putting on weight, Mellissa began to binge. "I'd eat anything I could get my hands on - peanut butter, ice cream, cakes, crisps - then I'd make myself sick," she says. One afternoon, feeling miserable, Mellissa embarked on another bingeing session. After stuffing herself full of food, she made herself sick as usual. But this time, there was blood in her vomit. Panicking she'd done some serious damage, she called her parents and begged for help. "I've got to stop this," she sobbed to her dad, who answered the phone. "I need help - I'm scared." She was admitted to hospital - by now she was 2st underweight for her height. Part of her treatment included group therapy, to understand why she felt the need to diet. "I explained that I felt there was no connection between me and my body. I felt disgusted by my attempts to control what I was eating, but I couldn't stop myself." Mellissa was forced to eat three regular meals a day. "The first night they served cottage pie for dinner. I didn't want to eat it because I knew they'd be watching me closely to make sure I didn't throw up. But three nurses sat with me until I'd finished the lot. "Each mouthful was so difficult, a fight with myself. But deep down, I knew it was for my own good." With six weeks of intensive therapy, Mellissa finally accepted that she needed to get better and learn to eat again. After getting her weight up to 10st she was discharged and went back to live with her parents. They ensured she stuck to her recommended three meals a day, and Mellissa continued to put on weight. She developed breasts, hips and a curvy bottom. But she hated her new voluptuous figure. "I felt disgusted with myself," she remembers. "So I started dieting again because I still hadn't given up on modelling." After losing more than a stone, taking her to a size 10, she felt confident enough to go out for drinks with friends from school. It was at a London bar that she met Gaven Orlando, a 31-year-old property developer. "I thought he was gorgeous. He asked me out and we started dating. "I couldn't believe he found me attractive. Every time he told me I was beautiful, I just went on about how I needed to lose weight." With Gaven's support Mellissa realised she needed to get to grips once and for all with her unhealthy attitude to food. "I'd go out for dinner and just order salad and I didn't drink much alcohol. "It was difficult for him - he could see that I wasn't really enjoying myself. And I was sometimes snappy with him because I constantly felt hungry." One day, flicking through a magazine, she saw an advert for a hypnotherapist who treated eating issues. Mellissa made an appointment. "I'd had so much therapy that hadn't worked, I thought anything was worth a try," she says. At £500 for two hours, the treatment wasn't cheap, but Mellissa believes it was worth every penny. "Under hypnosis I was taught how to reassess my relationship with food," she says. "I explained I wanted to think positively about food and to see it as fuel or a treat instead of something destructive." And, to Mellissa's astonishment, over the coming weeks, she began to relax about her diet and to enjoy food. "The therapy helped me to stop worrying about my weight and to accept my natural curvy shape." Mellissa's now 12st 3lb and is a size 16. And she's never been happier. Last year, she applied to be a plus-size model. "I wasn't worried about rejection - I knew I looked good," she says. And this time, the response couldn't have been more different. "They all wanted to sign me," she grins. Choosing to join the London-based Hughes Models, Mellissa has been working ever since. "I've worked for Evans and Spanx and done magazine shoots and TV appearances, including GMTV and How To Look Good Naked," she says. "Being taken on as a plus-size model has given me a feeling of total acceptance. In a way, I'm glad I went through what I did because it got me to where I am now. "When I look at old photos of me it's like looking at another person. I can't believe how thin I was, yet I thought I was fat. In reality, I was slowly killing myself." Mellissa's friends and family all love her new look - especially Gaven. "He adores my curves," she says. "And he says my personality has completely changed - I'm upbeat and I've got more to talk about than dieting! "For the first time in my life, I love my body. Modelling could have destroyed me, but instead I'm doing it on my own terms. I still go to the gym and look after myself, but now I celebrate my body. It makes me sad when I see models who are so skinny. I know what sacrifices some of them have to make to stay slim. "But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm healthy, happy and a model." Gaven says: "Mellissa is a lot more confident now she's happy in her own skin. She's sexier now and she has curves in all the right places."'I went from anorexic teen to plus-size model'
My female best friend is 30 and, although we're very close, she never shares anything with me about her love life or relationships. I tell her everything about my life and it really annoys me that she keeps this part of her life secret from me. When I ask if she's been out with anyone or met anyone nice, she says she "doesn't do relationships", but one of our other friends saw her recently in a restaurant with a guy and they were clearly on a date. I find it really frustrating because I think friendship should mean being completely open and honest. But when I try to talk to her about it, she shuts down and says she doesn't want to discuss it. How should I handle the situation? Harita, 31, Sheffield Jo says: I've got lots of friends of all shapes and sizes, and of every orientation and persuasion. Over the years, I've learned that the key to being a good friend is accepting people for who they are and not trying to turn them into someone else. Us girls have a terrible habit of being nosy about each other's sex lives and relationships - we love a good gossip about what everyone else has been getting up to between the sheets. However, if someone doesn't feel comfortable talking about that sort of thing, then just drop it. It's cruel to keep pushing them for information they obviously don't want to share. While it can be nice to hear about your friend's relationships, if she doesn't want to discuss it then it's none of your business. If she wants to talk about this sort of thing, it's up to her - it's not for you to drag it out of her. If you're a good friend, you'll accept she's clearly not comfortable chatting about sex and relationships, for whatever reason, and leave it at that.
Taylor Momsen is not your regular teen starlet. The actress best known for her role as Jenny Humphrey in Gossip Girl is not old enough to drink alcohol, drive a car or buy cigarettes (even if she does smoke them) but she's got the ambition and attitude of a showbiz veteran - not surprising given that she has been acting since she was three. Yes, you read that right, people. Three. In fact, just one look at her CV is enough to give even the most accomplished child genius an inferiority complex. She may be sweet 16, but she has already made her name in one of TV's most popular teen dramas to date, is a lead singer in a punk rock band and has been feted as Hollywood's hottest fashionista, with designers falling over themselves to dress her. They know that what Taylor is pictured wearing today will become tomorrow's latest trend. So it makes perfect (style) sense that fashion's latest muse fronts our new-season special. But not everyone is a fan of Ms Momsen's edgy look. Some conservative types have lambasted Taylor's love of long socks, grungy tops and barely-there skirts, saying she's a poor role model for her teen fans. Not that she's bothered. "Clothes are a form of self-expression. I don't care what other people think," she says. "I've had lots of people say I'm disgraceful because I should act like a role model for other young kids but I'm not a role model. I'm an actress, I'm a singer and I don't want to be a role model. If you like me that's fantastic - but if you don't, stop giving me a hard time." When we finally catch up with her (it's taken five days to pin her down) it's in the back of her chauffeur-driven car in New York en route from a Gucci fitting to a night out with friends from her band, The Pretty Reckless. "I've always been into my own look and love what I wear," she says. "I'm not like a lot of other actresses. I don't use a stylist and mostly do my own hair and make-up. When I get dressed up I always wear what I want to. Fashion is a big part of me but I always believe it's not what but how you wear clothes. "I'm not some cute girl that's been stamped out of a Disney studio and I'm proud of that. Some people like me for it, others hate it. I'm used to that. I've had it all my life." A teen tantrum this is not. Taylor's defensive for good reason. She was just three when she started to act professionally, six when she made her big-screen debut alongside Dennis Hopper in the thriller The Prophet's Game and seven when she got the part as the lead little girl in the Jim Carrey movie The Grinch. You would expect that such amazing parts at such a young age would have been the sign of a charmed life, but Taylor - who grew up in Missouri with parents Michael and Colette and younger sister Sloane, 13, and then moved to New York aged 12 - shakes her head. "I didn't have a great childhood," she says. "I loved my family, I loved my work but I hated school. I had a really bad time. Other kids didn't like me. I didn't fit in. "Maybe a lot of people think I have a great life. I do in lots of ways, but believe me it's been pretty tough. I know a lot of girls couldn't handle everything I've been through. "The way I am in my attitude, my clothes, my music is all to do with what has happened to me in my life so far. I do what I choose, I wear what I choose, I sing what I choose and I don't care what anyone else thinks. I've had to learn to get tough enough to be like this but it's the way I have to be. "I was made fun of all the time - the other kids used to taunt me religiously. I never had a best friend." It's undoubtedly this that has led to her "trust complexes" and she's said in the past she's only close to two people. "My life was just not normal. I was in commercials, I was in TV series, then I was the Grinch Girl." And it was a hint of the wild dress sense that got her noticed more recently which set her apart from the rest of her peers too. "I dressed differently. I definitely wasn't a fashion icon at school," she admits. "I used to always wear knee-high socks and I got teased all the time. Girls would point at them and laugh. It makes me laugh now that one of my fashion statements are my knee-high stockings. Now a lot of girls think they are pretty cool. You have to admit that's ironic." These days, everyone is desperate to be Taylor's friend, but back then those dark days were terribly lonely for her. "I really wanted a friend but it just never happened," she explains. "I didn't get talked to or invited anywhere. I never got hit or anything like that. It was much more snidey and personal. "I also never got asked out once at school. I was the weird one. Maybe people thought I was stuck up, maybe they thought I was above them. I wasn't. "I was very, very unhappy at school so I moved schools a lot which didn't help matters. I guess my parents and I thought that I'd finally find somewhere where I'd be OK. But it was the same story." It's clear that Taylor is nothing like the social climbing, squeaky-clean character she plays in ITV2's super-cool US series Gossip Girl. She started out on the show when she was 13 and over three years transformed her preppy innocent character into a bit of a rock chick. "I started dressing myself for events," says Taylor. "The producers noticed and wanted to incorporate that into Jenny's wardrobe, so I was very lucky. Now if someone doesn't like what I'm wearing, I don't care." But does that extend to her nearest and dearest? Ask Taylor how her mum reacts when she steps out in revealing outfits like the black stockings and suspenders combo she wore at the Teen Vogue Block Party in New York last September, and she laughs. "There are a few occasions when she raises her eyebrows but she never tells me to get changed," she says. It comes as little surprise that Taylor's role models are outrageous rock stars. "I love people like Joan Jett and Kurt Cobain. But what I love is more about their attitude than what they wear. "I don't copy anyone in how I dress," she insists. "It bugs me when people say I'm the next Courtney Love. Number one I've never been a heroin addict like she used to be, and number two I don't look anything like her." And Taylor - who recently collaborated with US designer Jen Kao to create tour outfits for her band - doesn't take her role as a fashionista remotely for granted. "I'm so amazingly lucky because I get to go to fashion shows, I have designers giving me clothes and I can pick what I want," she says. "But I mix everything up to put my mark on it. If a designer gives me a dress I may hem it up to make it shorter - I'll make it how I want it. I'm 16, I have an opinion and I think I can go out and do what I want and wear what I want. I want to inspire other girls to follow their own ideas and not care what other people think." And like the big names before her - Agyness Deyn, Alexa Chung, Lily Allen and Pixie Geldof - Taylor recently bagged a contract as the face of New Look. But she's not just modelling the clothes. This is an opportunity to put her style spin on the whole collection. "The cool thing about the campaign was wearing clothes with my twist," says Taylor, who is currently single and who has commented in the past that she would "eat a boy my age alive". "I don't dress for men, I don't dress for boys, I don't dress for women or other girls. I dress for me." With so many years ahead of her Taylor knows only one thing about the future - that she'll be doing fashion her way. "I don't know how I'll be dressing when I'm 20 or 30, but I know it'll be my style and it won't be boring. "I absolutely love fashion because it reflects who you are," she says. "When I was a kid I always used to think: 'What would I save if my house was on fire?' Even now it would have to be my rag doll, but it would also be my guitar and my vintage leather jacket." A style statement if ever there was one. These exclusive pictures of Taylor are part of New Look's spring/summer campaign. VisitNewlook.co.uk for the full collection.‘Bullied for being uncool - now girls want my style’
She's the fash pack's latest muse, but Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen reveals how her edgy look was inspired by classroom mean girls.
