In the fashion industry, "plus size" is a term for models who are size 8 and up. But in the real world, most people would never think of a size 8 as plus size — most plus-size clothing doesn't even start until a size 16.

Alex LaRosa, a self-proclaimed "plus-size model who's visibly plus-size," was on HuffPost Live to talk about some of her issues with these discrepancies:

"In a world where you're telling women that plus-size is sizes 4 and up, you're causing body image issues. You're causing unrealistic expectations that every one -- every woman -- should be a size 4. To bring that into the plus-size community, where you're using sizes 8, 10 and 12, when sometimes the stores don't even start carrying the clothes until size 14, you're telling women, 'You want to look like these models. This is what you should look like, but it's never going to happen.'

In fact, not so long ago plus-size models were around size 10-12, but that number has recently shrunk to an 8. According to Anthony Higgins, the director at MSA Models, "[catalogs] will use a size 8 because they think size 14 and 16 will relate to that person and size 4 and size 6 will relate to that person. They do not use size 18 as much as they should for print – though… size 18 makes the most money." The pathetic truth is plus-sized models' bodies are headed in the opposite direction of actual plus-size women's bodies.

According to the CDC, the average American woman is a size 14, and yet the dominant sizes in the industry are 0, 2, and 4. At size 8, the plus-size models are considerably smaller than the average American women, and if that isn't indicative of how delusional we are about what the majority of woman's bodies look like, I don't know what is.

As a fat woman, I long to see ladies who look like me modeling the clothes being sold to me. Many "plus-size" models are beautiful and healthy, and I'm so happy they have flourishing careers that perhaps felt impossible ten or fifteen years ago (see the gorgeous, awesome Robyn Lawley above, and the gorgeous, awesome Sophie Tweed-Simmons below) — but I think they should be doing that in the straight-size market. Because that's what they are: straight-sized. A size 8 can shop pretty much anywhere a size 2 can shop, but size 14 cannot. Hence, a size 8 is not an actual plus size.

Of course, we continue to see fashion predominately on thin bodies because we're told that's what sells. But the fact is, it's just what we've been fed for so long that we don't know what the alternative would look like. This could change, but the fashion industry would have to want it to. According to research published in PLoS ONE, Seeing diverse bodies makes us more comfortable with body diversity — meaning the more size 14 women we see, the more we're like "hey! she looks good!" instead of "avert thine eyes from the Chubster McThunderThighs"! If we saw more average-sized women in media, the more comfortable we would be with those images and the more we'd want to see ladies who look like us in movies, TV, and ad campaigns. From where I'm standing (OK, sitting) (in my size 16 Old Navy yoga pants), it sounds like a stellar idea.

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Laura Beck Laura Beck is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan.com — her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Jezebel, and the Village Voice.

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