Lizzie MIller shows the embarassing photo that made her a star

Lizzie MIller shows the embarassing photo that made her a star

When Lizzie Miller saw the photograph that would make her famous, she felt embarrassed. The picture — which appeared in Glamour magazine in the U.S. a year ago — showed her stretch marks and a roll of soft tummy flesh.

‘I said to myself: ‘‘OK, it’s not the best picture, but it’s not a big deal. And anyway, nobody’s going to see it.’’ Famous last words!’

But that photograph, buried in the back of the magazine, generated a global media frenzy and turned her into a supermodel.

Hundreds of emails and letters poured in from women overwhelmed with joy at *seeing a normal body in a magazine.

‘Seeing someone not airbrushed, with an average looking body, compared to all those stick-thin pictures of perfection — I guess people thought: ‘‘Wow! This girl looks like me,’’ ’ says Lizzie.

‘It really struck a chord. The work flooded in, with lucrative contracts with American and Italian fashion labels.’

Ironically, it was the public reaction that helped Lizzie finally accept her own body in all its curvy glory.

‘The part of myself I was most insecure about was my stomach,’ she says. ‘My weight has been an issue I’ve struggled with all my life. But the response I got made me realise other people out there felt like me.

‘One girl wrote to me to say her sister had told her she was fat and ugly all her life. Now, when she feels bad about herself, she goes to her computer, looks at a picture of me and she feels better.