'I was willing to risk my life': World's most successful plus-sized model reveals how close she came to death

She is the world's most successful 'plus-size' model.

But Crystal Renn, 23, nearly died after she was pressured to lose nearly half her body weight to succeed in her cut-throat industry.

In a series of shocking insights, the American Rubenesque model described how she was ordered to drop five stone after being spotted by a talent scout at just 13.

Embracing her curves: Crystal Renn was once a size zero but gained five stone to become a very successful model

From that moment she abandoned her care-free calorific diet which included cheesecake and pizza and from then on lived on lettuce leaves, diet Coke and chewing gum.

In a candid new autobiography Renn, whose mother abandoned her when she was a baby, said she saw modelling as an escape from her life

'When somebody says you can lose this amount of weight and escape everything that is currently happening to you – that is the moment that caused the eating disorder,' she said in an interview with the Observer magazine.

Dying to be thin: Crystal dropped to 95lb, with a waist measurement of 33in, after barely eating for months on end

'To be a model – that was my ticket. I made the choice not to eat because that was what was expected of me to get my ticket. I was willing to risk my life to do that.'



By barely eating, taking diuretics and exercising for more than eight hours a day, her weight dropped to 95lb, with a hip measurement of just 33in.



She admitted the drastic diet took her to a size zero close to death.

'I am startled by the way my body looks when I don't eat. I think that is a picture of someone who looks like they are dying. That is me facing death at a really young age. I was all bones,' she said.

Sick: Crystal starved herself for three years before her body rejected the regime

'I see someone who has nothing inside, who is unfeeling, incapable of understanding what is happening to them. I talk about it as if it is a separate person.

Despite weighing just 7 stone and easily fitting into size 0 designer samples, work for the 'normal' sized model was thin on the ground.



After starving herself for three years Renn's body began to reject the regime and she gained weight.

She was told to shed the extra pounds - but refused and joined modelling agency Ford - known for supporting plus-sized models.

Renn began to embrace food again: ' 'Pizza, peanut butter, chocolate mud cakes. I ate a lot of those,' she told the Observer, adding that she would sit on the sofa eating cheesecake every day - the way she used to before her eating disorder.

'Each pound was a discovery. I liked it. I felt myself becoming more who I am. I had a cleavage suddenly.



'I started wearing heels, short dresses, colour. I was becoming the weight I naturally am. It felt like I was a woman finally.'



Since gaining five stone, Renn has gone on to become one of the world's highest paid plus-sized models, and has appeared in American Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and has modelled for the Evans clothing brand.

While she is considered 'plus-sized' in the modelling world, Renn, who is 5ft 9in and a UK size 14, is far from large and rejects the tag. In the real world with real people - the average British woman is a size 16 - she is fairly average but the modelling industry she is an anomaly.



Hot property: Crystal Renn, seen on the catwalk in 2006 with Jean-Paul Gaultier, has modelled for everyone from Evans to Chanel this season

'If they judge me for not being big enough, is that not the same as judging me for not being thin enough? When do we stop? My size shouldn't matter,' she says.



'Let's get rid of straight size and plus size. It's bulls**t. Just say model. Full stop.'

'I'm a curvy girl. You can't erase it… Women should be able to look at me and think: 'She's beautiful.' But also: "I could look like that."'

Hungry by Crystal Renn with Marjorie Ingall is published by Simon & Schuster in America