Sizing Us Up

In her new book, Southfield native
Michele Weston gives
full-figured women a voice.

hopes to inspire other plus-sized women
to look beyond the painful memories
from the past, realize their beauty and
potential and act on it through develop-
lthough she is now a high
ing their own personal style.
powered fashion and style
director at Mode, one of the
With contributions and personal
memories from pals like New York
nation's leading women's
Times food writer Molly O'Neill,
magazines, there was a time in Michele
Weston's life when stepping into the
model Emme and acclaimed actresses
closet elicited pain and misery.
Camryn Manheim, Kim Coles, Kathy
Thirteen years old and in a rush to
Najimy and Delta Burke, Weston
get dressed for a family din-
encourages readers to
- ner, she raided her mother's Michele Weston:
become role models to
"This is a journey any young women who also
closet. "I found a pair of
woman can take. It
pants that I had always
may face the "stigma" of
doesn't
matter what
loved to wear, only to feel
being full-figured.
size you are. Know
devastated by the fact that
"The point of this is
yourself from the
they no longer fit me," she
for the readers to learn
inside out."
writes in her new book,
about themselves from the
Learning Curves: Living Your
inside out, to learn who
Life in Full 6. with Style (Crown
you are and what your own personal
Publishers; $24).
style is," says Weston, a Southfield
"Even though the pants were a size
native and Temple Israel graduate cur-
10, I felt I had gone into the never-
rently on a 10-city tour to promote
never land of double digits. That meant Learning Curves.
heartache because I would never be like
On Saturday, May 13, she will
the other girls who wore a size 5 or 7.
appear at Saks Fifth Avenue at the
Through early adulthood, no matter
Somerset Collection in Troy, Border's
what the number on the tag in my
Books and Music in Novi and
clothes read or how beautifully
Valentina's Boutique in Southfield.
dressed I was, all I could see
While she is celebrating
was me, the fat girl,
the early success of
bursting out of my
Learning Curves, Weston's
mother's pants."
path to success wasn't
In that recol-
always easy. A graduate
lection and a
of Western Michigan
number of
University in perfor-
others she
mance/costume
shares,
design, she dropped
Weston,
out of her first love,
39,
acting, because
directors were insis-
tent that someone of
her size would not be
accepted in starring
roles. "I believed I was
supposed to play
Romeo's Juliet and
not her mother,
Lady Capulet,"
writes Weston.
Instead, she
embarked on a jour-
ney of self-discovery.
Weston joined a medi-

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR
Special to the Jewish News

A

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