Lauren Maksimovic HNS Industry Ambassador

Lauren Lauren started her plus size modeling career after moving to Sydney where she was scouted by agent Chelsea Bonner while at work as a bartender. Lauren is a perfect example of health with a beautiful proportionate body. She has gained so much knowledge from her experience working as a plus models and she is excited to share what she has learned with girls who are feeling the pressure to be “Perfect!”

“Growing up I was always told by my mum to learn to “love myself.” I always found this hard to do. Firstly, to find parts of myself

that I could love and secondly, to do it humbly and modestly. I can openly say for the first time in my life, I believe I have found that

balance.”!

Why do you feel so passionate about Healthy is the New Skinny and the message it brings?

I believe that change never occurs without somebody, perhaps a couple of people or a group, speaking out against the majority. The team behind Healthy is the New Skinny are pioneers in this industry and it is refreshing but mostly inspiring, to have women standing up for other women – rejoining the sisterhood. Working together as women rather than judging and shooting each other down.

“I feel proud of the woman I have become, I take pride in my body, but I have learned to love my curvaceous figure. I love that as a strong and confident woman, I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to. ” !

- Lauren!

If you could go back in time and give your younger self a message, what would you tell her?

So many moments were wasted in my high school years worrying about what I looked like, or worse, what other’s thought of my appearance. My weight often consumed me, and it made me feel self conscious, which I now see held me back in so many ways. I would tell my “high school self” to live life the way I do now, do only what makes you happy and that a woman’s body and her weight does not, and should never, define who she is as a person.

Think of your favorite picture of you as a child.... if you could go back to that day and give yourself a message, what would that be?  My favorite photo of me as child was when I was about 4 years old, and when my Mum turned her head for a brief second in which I stole her moisturizer and plastered myself in it. I looked so cute and innocent with moisturizer all over my face and hair and these little yellow overalls I had on. When I look at it, it makes me smile, it makes me realize that we should always take time every day to be silly and have the ability to laugh at ourselves.  

  What is the funniest, most awkward, or embarrassing thing that has happened to you working as a model?  I was on a shoot with a client in Australia and the pants they had for me were a bit too big, so they had them pinned at the back. During shooting, I was so focused and into the shoot, I had not realized my pants had fallen down and been down the whole time… By the time I realized the whole set was on the floor laughing!!

What do you want other girls to know? Every woman is beautiful in her own way. Let YOU define who YOU are, and don’t ever allow yourself to let others define who you are on the inside, by how they judge you on the outside. Women become so consumed by their weight that they allow the number on the scales to define them as a woman. They begin to disrespect and fall out of love with themselves, and then wonder why others do the same. Love yourself for who you are, and as Oscar Wilde puts so eloquently, “Be yourself – everybody else is taken.”

“I feel incredibly blessed to have the most wonderful family, who are extraordinarily supportive of my life and give me happiness every day. I made a choice a few years ago to only have people in my life who make me happy and who I love and love me. I don’t really have time for negative people and people who are there to bring me down. I have the most wonderful friends who I care deeply for and a boyfriend who always finds a way to bring a smile to my face every day. ”!

We want to know why you feel this movement is important and why you wan to be apart of this change?  I have never been so passionate about anything in my life! I feel passionate to work in an industry where I can be true to myself, and present a realistic and healthy body image to younger girls. I believe that beauty comes in the form of inner confidence, and the smile on your face – not in the form of dieting, or unhealthy measures to achieve a standard of thinness that is deemed appropriate by an industry that doesn’t care about your actual health and well being, merely the angles and poses you can achieve with a slender frame. The up and coming plus size models are a forced to be reckoned with - we have the ability, confidence, strength, and passion to be apart of this change.

Lauren Maksimovic Height: Tall Size: Healthy Weight: Who cares….. Representation: Bella Models, Hughes Models

Tell us something people would not know about you from your looks alone….

If your inner beauty sparkled, what color would it be and why?

“My wonderful boyfriend once told me that I remind him of the color

aqua, the color of the ocean. Always beautiful, sometimes unexpected and a little rough around the edges!!” !

-Lauren!

I don’t take myself too seriously, I like to have fun with whatever I am doing and I am always up for a laugh. I am extremely grounded and I feel blessed to be a working model.

HEALTHY IS THE NEW SKINNY