Natural Model Management Helps Average-Sized Models Find A Niche

Plus-size model Marquita Pring made headlines when she revealed she uses padding to please clients . Marquita is a size 12-14. But when companies hire plus-size models, they want very plus-size models.

"We have to maintain our size and be careful not to fluctuate too drastically," Marquita admitted . Lose too much weight, she told Women's Wear Daily, and you won't look big enough.

With skinny runway models being told they're too big and plus-size models being told they're too small, is there a place for an average-sized girl? Fashionista raised this question, sitting down with model Katie Halchishick to talk about her "Healthy is the New Skinny" campaign .

Halchishick, 26, was signed as a plus-size model in her teens. She was quickly encouraged to get bigger, getting her weight up to 200 pounds -- and scoring tons of modeling gigs as a result. But when she lost the weight, reaching 145 pounds, she saw all those jobs disappear. Like Pring, she started to use padding... but also began to look for a better solution.

Filling a niche that seemed not to exist, Halchishick started a modeling agency that caters to models sized 6-10. Calling it Natural Model Management, the emphasis is on staying healthy rather than skinny (or overweight, for that matter).

It's still an uphill battle, Halchishick told Fashionista . But there is a promising market among the mass-retailers, like J.C. Penney's and Kohl's, who want healthy-looking women.

Will these "average" girls ever make it to Milan and Paris runways? Maybe not. But there should at least be a place in the modeling world for healthy, normal-sized women, whether in a Macy's commercial or magazine shoot... no padding necessary.

Read more about Halchishick's Natural Model Management at Fashionista.com and throw in your two cents below: is there a place in the modeling world for "normal-size" girls?