In response to her critics, an Australian model stirred controversy after she posted a message calling "overweight" women "hypocrites" for putting her down for loving her tiny frame.
Cassi Van Den Dungen, who competed on "Australia's Next Top Model," posted an Instagram photo on Wednesday of a thin, topless woman with a message expressing her love for her "bones." The photo and message was posted after the model was criticized for being too skinny after she was featured at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Australia this month, Yahoo! Shine reported.
"I think a lot of Overweight girls are hypocrites. I'm naturally tall and skinny, I eat what I want, I don't starve myself, I am beautiful," the Instagram message read.
"So why are you allowed to love your 'curves' but Its wrong for me to love my 'Bones'? Why Is it okay for you to call me anorexic, but horrible for me to call you fat?" the message continued.
The model walked down the runway for designer Alex Perry during Sydney Fashion Week. According to Yahoo! Shine, her anorexic appearance shocked the audience, including Jackie Frank, the editor of Marie Claire magazine.
"When I saw those legs I nearly died. I rang the model agent and said 'why is that girl walking down the runway when she's clearly not healthy?" Frank said according to The Daily Telegraph.
Perry has since apologized for using the rail-thin model, but also said other designers do the same thing, according to Yahoo! Shine. As for Van Den Dungen, she refuses to let the world shame her into feeling ugly.
"If you can tell me to 'gain weight', why cant I tell you to lose weight?" the post said. "If you can feel beautiful for being big, I can fell beautiful for being small. Get over it."
It is not clear who the author of the message is, but the model wrote "my thoughts exactly," in the post's caption, followed by several, self-assuring hashtags: "#GetOverIt #IAmWhoIAmDealWithIt.
"#DontTolerateBullying," the model wrote.
