Carre Otis

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.