by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com
Halloween is just around the corner and I know enough about it to know that it is a fairly big deal in the US, so much so that most of the TV watching public in India is also familiar with Halloween and how it is all about dressing up.
On my perambulations around the internet to seek plus size costumes for Halloween, I came across some useful write ups on some general ideas about plus size costumes for this Halloween, such as this one here. Useful suggestions like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, the wicked queen from Alice in Wonderland and the Royal pirate lady are to be found. Continue Reading…
by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

A ‘Plus size’ model winning a TV model hunt competition is something we read and saw a lot about in the media and discussed at length when Whitney Thompson won America’s Next Top Model. Well now it would seem that this concept; that a model who is not a size 0 can also be a main stream model, is becoming more widely accepted and is reaching other shores as well.
Continue Reading…
by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com


People like Janice Dickinson undo a lot of good done by others trying to promote the concept of a healthy and positive body image, by making rude and demeaning remarks; remarks which perpetuate the ‘thin is beautiful’ myth and which reject the real woman’s body as it is meant to be: “I DON’T DO FAT!” she says.
Witness the irony in a statement that she made Continue Reading…
I say the word “belly” with no reservations about the implication of the word. The word sounds so unattractive to most of our ears.
Our minds instantly conjure images of very pregnant women and stretch-mark, cellulite-ridden fat rolls. I’m not pregnant, but I do have some stretch marks, some cellulite, and some fat folds in my middle.
What is the difference, then, between the average American woman and me? I love my belly.
It all started when I was tugging at my fat in the mirror, frowning at myself for not being able to get rid of my lower abdominal fat, and my roommate saw me. “That’s there for a reason, you know.”
I furrowed my eyebrows even more, not computing what she was suggesting. “Female hormones cause fat to be stored there, specifically, because that’s where you carry your babies.”
It didn’t make me feel any better at the time, but I saw the Continue Reading…