I’m a 17-year-old girl living within the society of fashion and the pressure of having size zero all around me, in magazines and on TV.

Celebrities are a major influence for being extremely skinny. People like Lindsey Lohan are not a very good influence because she has a past of being anorexic and having an eating disorder.

However, people like my idol Beyonce Knowles are an extremely good influence because she believes in curves on women and she has them herself.

I really don’t believe in being a size zero and think that girls my age should not worry about what size they are: it is what is inside that counts.

Men prefer curves on girls nowadays, because it makes them real. Being size zero is just like being a stick on legs, there is nothing on you.

On runways promoting a clothing line, I think they should have different-sized models, because not everyone is as skinny as the women who walk on the runway.

I am a healthy size 10/12 with the ambition of becoming a model to help girls like me to become happy about how they are and promote real girls out there and prove that you do not need to be a size zero to be pretty.

I think I will be a great inspiration for young girls out there because I believe beauty comes from inside.

I have my own curves and I am happy in my own body. So really what I am saying is that, zero is not a size!

Swindon Advertiser: Blob By Jodie Cahill, 17, New College