Carre Otis Quotes

1. I had dropped out of school and was a runaway, so I didn't have family to fall back on if I didn't work. I didn't have a lot of other options of making money other than modeling.

2. In the past, I often found that when I reached out for a fast cure it led me down a slippery slope of more medications, hopeful dependence on the next prescription and ultimately a much longer drawn-out illness.

3. Just as young people absorb all kinds of messages from the media, young girls learn what it means to be a woman by watching the older women in their lives.

4. Motherhood has brought me many joys and insights, but the new perspective it granted me on the role I had inadvertently played in young women's lives for the 2 decades I spent in the modeling industry was downright sobering.

5. My daughters, your daughters, our daughters deserve safety, protection, and the freedom to make their own choices about their personal lives and their physical selves.

6. My doctor felt that the main contributing factor was so many years of malnutrition, especially during my formative years, even before I got into modeling.



7. Part of treatment for drugs and alcohol is you abstain from these, but with eating disorders you can't abstain from food so the treatment is longer than drugs and alcohol.

8. The moment we're 17 and a size 2 is but five minutes of our lifespan. The media has chosen images to represent us as women that are totally unrealistic. The media highlights the skinniest models, but even these images are photographically altered. It's very confusing for girls trying to develop self-esteem. Picking up a fashion magazine is a trigger for me, so I stay away from them. We need to make our body type the best it can be and get away from comparing - that's a killer.

9. I've found that balance is key. I'm no longer an extremist in any one direction.






10. I'm proud that today, at 43 years old, I've come to value the aging process and focus on inner rather than outer beauty.

11. I've learned to surround myself with women who lift me up and leave me feeling nurtured rather than drained.

12. It not unusual for women with anorexia to suffer heart attacks.

13. An eating disorder is like alcoholism. You finally realize you can't get away with it. Then you have to ask yourself: "Are you going to live or die?" In recovery, you can turn around these deep-rooted patterns. But you have to bring them to the forefront, and you've got to work with a support system of other women so you're not operating out of sickness and secrets. One day we can look in a mirror, and instead of finding 100 things wrong with us, we'll find 100 that are right. We must be compassionate to ourselves, the way we'd be with friends.

14. Just because you're a different size doesn't mean you're sitting on the couch eating bonbons all day long watching TV.

15. Many women who have anorexia put their hearts in a compromised situation.

16. My days are jam-packed with carpools, classroom assistance, tending to chickens, dogs and seven acres of olive trees!

17. People ask me: "Don't you have regrets?" I tell them I couldn't imagine being any other place than where I am now. Everything I've been through has made me the woman I always aspired to be. I finally realized that by being of service to other people, you're giving yourself the greatest gift of all.

18. My parents were both from the East and had moved to San Francisco only so my father could go to law school there.

19. But life inevitably throws us curve balls, unexpected circumstances that remind us to expect the unexpected. I've come to understand these curve balls are the beautiful unfolding of both karma and current.

20. Exposing any subject that is unpleasant or controversial means risking judgment and making some people feel uncomfortable.

21. From the time I started school, it was clear to everyone that I wasn't learning at the same pace as other kids.

22. I was always in the wrong relationships, so I decided to see what would happen if I took that energy and focused it elsewhere. I live like a nun now.

23. I didn't know what to do with calories.

24. I bicycle 12,000-foot mountain passes, run, cross train, skate-ski, hike and mountain bike.

25. I delight in my family obligations, but they leave little time for breaks let alone quick trips across the country.

26. I had my first seizure, and I had to go in for heart surgery.




27. I grew up on antibiotics. Every ailment - sore throats, earaches, flus - warranted a trip to the doctor and in most cases some kind of prescription.

28. I think that we can't deny the public's want for balancing out the images that are out there depicting women. Not all of us are 17 and a size two.




29. I was born in 1968, just eighteen months after my sister Chrisse and just one year after Dad passed the bar exam.

30. I was essentially paid to perpetuate the myth that we are all, or should at least try to be, 17 and a size 2 forever.

31. I had also taken something called ipecac –which is a syrup that makes you throw up – I took it when I was young as my way to control my eating. It's been shown to bore holes in the heart. As a result, I needed a minimally invasive procedure that cauterized three holes in my heart. Had it been a few years earlier they would have had to open my chest.

32. We come in many different shapes and sizes, and we need to support each other and our differences. Our beauty is in our differences.





33. Life is full of change and uncertainty. We know this. We experience it on a daily basis.

34. While women across the globe have many differences - language, culture, environment - our similarities are undeniable, and the impact of abuse and oppression affects us all.

35. Anorexia was there for me before I got into modeling, but because of the arena and the demands, the disease really got out of control for me. It's like being an alcoholic and going and being a bartender.




36. My weight fluctuated when I was 30, and I did the unthinkable - I stepped out as a plus-sized model.

37. The life I'd been living had wreaked havoc on my body. I decided to really start taking care of myself.

38. There comes a moment as a parent when you realize you will no longer be the center of your child's universe.

39. The doctor asked what my diet was like and I had to sit down and realize it's not normal, and hadn't been normal for about 20 years.

40. The pressure was if I didn't get into that dress size someone else would - someone else would get the job.

41. When I consider the deeper meaning of yoga, I realize it's about a lot more than simply performing a variety of postures on a mat.

42. You have to find a balance with food in your life - you can't take out food. It can be absolutely terrifying.





43. I've always really gone along with the flow of the environment I'm in. The fashion world isn't an environment where health is necessarily encouraged. When I got into modeling and had success right away, the addictions I'd had when I was younger returned.

44. Though my parents assured me over and over again that I wasn't stupid or slow, I sensed that my dyslexia was now a stigma on all of us.


45. But I would assert that despite the wide variety of yoga options and individual preferences, there is one universal element: the union of consciousness and movement, breath and awareness.

46. I used to measure how I felt based on what size jean I wore, how skinny I was. Now I see myself in terms of health. Can I get through my run in the morning? Can I make it through my yoga class? Can I beat my brothers when we race up a hill?

47. Being born and raised as a Californian, I somewhat ignorantly had taken for granted the diversity and liberal mindset that shaped my childhood and adult life.



48. I am not naturally that thin, so I had to go through everything from using drugs to diet pills to laxatives to fasting. Those were my main ways of controlling my weight.

49. Eating disorders, body dysmorphia and a general dissatisfaction with one's life and body seems to ail too many young people.




50. I believe that as women, we must commit ourselves to sustaining the progress made by our foremothers who fought so hard for women's equality and liberation.

51. My own path towards wellness has been a long and dynamic one. It's taught me that healing from the inside out takes time and there can be great value in various sources of guidance.

52. I did some great work with my Calvin Klein ads on the motorcycle. It was really groundbreaking because people hadn't seen a woman actually riding a motorcycle before.

53. I feel like it's my responsibility to honestly cover a lot of subjects in part because I have two little girls and I really want them when they grow up to have a voice.

54. I am a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mother. I am a friend of women and I am their advocate.

55. When you become a parent, it's not all about you anymore.


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