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Iman Talks Success and Enjoying Her Weight Gain

The former supermodel says her extra pounds make her look younger.

Iman has been a style icon since her supermodel days back in the '80s and while the Somalian beauty might have hung up her runway shoes, the fashion icon is still making her mark in the industry. In an interview with Net-A-Porter's digital magazine, The Edit, Iman talked about her career, her family and how much she loves her weight gain.
"My natural weight is 130 pounds and I'm 142 now. I was 160 when I was pregnant, so it's a little too much for me. Still, I call it natural Botox. I look at myself in the mirror and I've never looked younger. It's the weight I have put on," she says. "In the west, we have become accustomed to needing to lose weight, right? But as we get older, for women especially, it makes us look a little haggard. So my consolation about this weight is that it's given me a fresh face. The rest of it, I'm sitting on it."
In an industry that seems to always push for skinnier, it's refreshing to hear a former supermodel relish the extra pounds and actually feel happier and healthier. Perhaps it's that industry mindset that makes her reluctant to encourage her own daughter, 12-year-old Alexandria Zahra, to pursue modeling.
Now that she's no longer working in front of the cameras, Iman says she's no longer a model, "I'm just me," but she's been keeping busy in other ways. She has a style website, Destination Iman, and her cosmetics line for women of color is now a $25 million company.
"I think it is easier for people to understand successful people of color now. It's very mainstream; it's not unusual. I'm not constantly in the papers but I think that works for me. It's given me longevity," she says.
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(Photo: Christopher Peterson/Splash News)

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