Post date: Jun 19, 2012 4:36:14 PM
BEER SHEBA, ISRAEL (JUNE 18, 2012) (REUTERS) - Israel crowned a new plus-sized beauty queen on Monday (June 18), in the annual 'Fat and Beautiful' competition.
Israel crowns its plus-sized queen of beauty in the 'Fat and Beautiful' pageant.
16 contestants, coming in all shapes and sizes, strutted down the runway in a packed hotel auditorium in the southern desert city of Beer Sheba.
Weighing in at 110 kilograms (242 pounds), Vered Fisher, 22, won first prize, being crowned Israel's 'Fat and Beautiful' queen.
Fisher, who served in the intelligence unit in the Israeli army, walked down the catwalk alongside the other contestants, dressed in casual wear and evening gowns.
Esterica Nagid, a modelling agent who has sponsored the 'Fat and Beautiful' pageant for the 20th consecutive year, said fat is beautiful too.
"I want to show that there is no difference between skinny and fat. Nobody determined that only the skinny girls are beautiful. I am not encouraging fat but if it exists and is aesthetic and pretty, then this is the place to express it," Nagid said ahead of the competition.
The criteria, Nagid said, is to first and foremost be beautiful and to weigh between 80 (176 pounds) -120 (264 pounds) kilograms.
Fisher's message, after being crowned, was for large ladies to be proud of their size.
"Stay this way because you are pretty as you are and you can succeed as you are," Fisher said.