by Katie Alston

Stunning Helen Diamond is hoping to challenge women’s desire to be size zero after making it through to the semi final of a curvy modelling competition.

The slender 21-year-old from Whitstable, who has had experience both in front and behind of the camera was whittled down from 3,000 girls to the last 100 in ITV Lorraine’s Curvy Model Search.

Despite being only between a size 10 and 12 Helen is classed as a plus size model by industry standards.

Her striking appearance has helped her to model in vintage shoots, however she says she is ‘too big’ to be a catwalk model.

Helen, who also works in the Clothes Horse, Harbour Street said: “My friend told me to go for it and enter the competition, but at first I wasn’t too sure, I didn’t think I would get anywhere.

“I forgot about it for a while and then got an email back saying congratulations and inviting me to the Mayfair Hotel in London to film.

“I didn’t make it through to the final three, but hope I have shown that you don’t have to be stick thin to be beautiful.”

As a self employed photographer and editor, Helen knows more than most the extent to which pictures are doctored, having had to adapt hundreds of images of women destined for glossy magazines.

She said: “When sat altering images of women it was tempting to add bingo wings or bigger hips but unfortunately that isn’t what the industry says it wants.

“Editing people for a living is quite eye opening and if you put a before and after picture together often it’s not the same person.

“I want to do something to show girls and women of all ages, that hardly any men or women are comfortable with how they look. But its not surprising when all they have is god like figures in the media to look at.

“Things are slowly starting to change and I’m noticing things on TV that challenge the fashion industry and idea of beauty, and hopefully showing that you don’t need to conform to be beautiful.

“Size zero on the catwalk is not a new thing, but there is a lot more awareness now.

“At one point it was fashionable to look drugged up and like you haven’t eaten for a year, but these models are people not clothes horses, and the industry is starting to use slim people not those that look ill.

“Most people I speak to prefer curves and find womanly figures attractive, and that is the message that needs to be promoted.”