Month: May 2012

Shawn Johnson vs Body Image

Shawn Johnson is the 4’9″ tall fireball who won the gold medal in the balance beam in the 2008 Olympics. She started in gymnastics at the age of three. She was born in 1992, so she was 16 years old when she won her gold medal. Shawn has been in and out of the spotlight since then, winning the Dancing With the Stars competition in 2009. After a skiing accident, Shawn had knee surgery, and announced she was going to try to make the Olympic team in 2012.

Shawn has always been tremendously popular with her fans. AOL ranked her as one of the most searched for female athletes in 2009. She has won a Teen Choice Award. And Des Moines (where she grew up) dedicated a life-sized bronze sculpture of her. She published a biography about her life in 2008.

Shawn came out in May of this year and did some interviews where she talked about her body image, self-esteem, and the public focus on her weight. She actually lost 25 lbs as she started uping her game for the Olympic gymnastics bid. Whether this was due to more intense training, or intentional weight loss due to pressure she felt in the public eye was never disclosed. But she did say that being a world-class athlete was not enough to prop up her self-esteem and reassure her that she looked great. more Shawn Johnson

Carla Jones

Carla Jones got a late start into the world of fitness competitions. Although she was a group exercise instructor for fifteen years, it wasn’t until about six years ago she started competing as a bodybuilder, then moved into fitness competitions. She was competing in a bikini contest in Florida when she was approached by a couple of photographers. It wasn’t long before she was on the cover of Fitness and Physique Magazine, and it was time to start seriously training!

Carla is 36 years old. She is 5’3″ tall, and weighs about 125 lbs. She says the easiest way to break into fitness modeling is just to compete. The competitions are usually jammed with photographers and other people from the industry not only trying to sell their brand and their product, but also find spokeswomen for their companies. more Carla Jones

Brooke Evers

If you tend to attribute an extra dose of exoticism (if that’s a word), sophistication, and plain old cool-factor to European blondes, Brooke Evers is probably going to float your boat. She is a Dutch beauty queen who was born in Australia. She is pretty much everywhere – posing on the cover of many magazines, working with various companies as a brand ambassador, presenting stories as a journalist, and even working as a television and radio personality. Here lately, she has been digging into the music scene as a fairly sought-after DJ. How she finds time to stay in the gym and stay fit is a testament to her inventiveness. She says she does cardio basically every day, and hits the weights at least three times per week. more Brooke Evers

Andressa Vieira

Speaking of amazing abs – Andressa Vieira has some of the best in the business. This Brazilian babe is 26 years old, five feet five inches tall, and weighs about 125 lbs in the off-season. She is a figure competitor, but as you can see she has enough muscle mass to easily switch over to bodybuilding. Her abs are simply stunning. This lady doesn’t have a six-pack, she has a 12 or 14-pack. When she is in ripped condition, they are even vascular, which as you all know is nearly impossible for females to attain. Even in the off-season with slightly higher bodyfat levels, Andressa’s abdominals are extremely well defined and nearly perfect. more Andress Vieira

April Venture

April Venture started working out after the birth of child number one. She had always been a fan of bodybuilders, and it tickled her fancy to get compliments on the way she looked from fitness competitors and bodybuilders. It wasn’t long before kid number two came around, and it was common sense that April would go back to training and get right into shape.

April is 5’1″ tall, about 115 lbs, and in her late 20’s. She is a southern gal from North Carolina. She started competing in NPC figure contests, and aspires to move on to the lightweight women’s bodybuilding. I haven’t seen anything recent from her. I know she was active in 2009 and 2010, but either she has been sitting out the competitions or I have just been missing her since then. more April Venture

Divini Rae

Divini Rae is a fitness guru, mom, and former Playboy model. She was kind enough to write up a bio to post here on FitBabesBlog:

Beginning with her childhood in rural Alaska, fitness model Divini Rae has always maintained an active lifestyle. Tasks such as fishing for her parents’ business, hauling firewood, and caring for sled dogs kept her constantly moving as a child. Along with maintaining physical fitness through activity, Divini enriched her mind by constantly reading, a past time she enjoys to this day. more Divini Rae

Randy Moore

Over the years, we have had a few Moore ladies here on FitBabesBlog. Back in 2007, there was Frostee Moore. And shortly thereafter, we profiled Moorea Wolfe and her buns of steel. Randy Moore is a 25 year old from Long Beach California who really isn’t our typical fitness model. She is known for posing nude, although we’ll “spare” you samples of those pics since we’re a little more mainstream. She is basically never out of tiptop shape, and knows more than a few things about working out, keeping fit, and eating clean. Her activities include yoga and hiking. She’s been in the modeling industry for years, and she’s a pretty good example of the type of girls who know their looks are important to their careers, and use fitness to their advantage. more Randy Moore

Peta Alana

Peta Alana is a smoking hot fitness model based in the UK. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and and a curvy 34F-24-34 figure on a 5’6″ frame definitely tend to get her noticed. Peta knows exactly how to promote herself, and we were lucky enough to score an interview with her…

How is your career going right now?
I am in a good place with work at the minute, i am so grateful to everything that has come my way so far, i hope it continues. I have been featured in the UK, USA and other worldwide publications.

Do you do a lot of traveling?
I love to travel especially for work, it is a great way to network and visit different countries. Most of my recent work has been here in the UK but if an opportunity arose to travel and shoot, I’d be there!

It seems like it would be easy for a beauty like you to break into the modeling scene. Do you think your looks tend to open doors for you, and make life easier in some ways?
Thank you, i don’t think it’s all about looks though, you could have the prettiest girl but she could lack confidence and that shows in a photo. I think my looks have helped a little bit obviously if I meet the desired criteria. more Peta Alana

Ashley Horner

Ashley Horner was an active child and teenager. She was inspired by her mother to play sports like soccer and gymnastics, and to minimize junk food and soda. She gained forty-five pounds when she was pregnant with her first son, and the task of whipping herself back into shape seemed daunting. She decided she was not only going to lose that baby weight, but she was going to do her first figure competition.

Many years later, Ashley is on the cover of fitness magazines, and has a body many would die for. She works out six days a week, and she eats six meals per day. She says her favorite role models are Ava Cowan and Jennifer Nicole Lee. Ashley placed first in the NPC West Coast Classic back in June of 2011. If she has competed in 2012, it has slipped by us. She loves to bake in her spare time, which seems pretty tempting for somebody that has to stay on a fairly strict diet all the time. more Ashley Horner

Carolyn Sessa

Carolyn Sessa is a 28 year old Figure Competitor with a bodybuilding background. She hails from Long Island New York. She stands 5’3″ tall and weighs about 120 lbs. She was not terribly athletic growing up, but she had and older brother she looked up to who enjoyed lifting weights. She says her triceps are her best body part. I’m not sure I can agree with her, but let’s just say she has many nice bodyparts and leave it at that!

As hard as it is to imagine, Britney Spears was one of her early idols, and she says she started working out in an attempt to look just like her. Carolyn does a lot of modeling, and it’s easy to see why. She has an amazing body and some really pretty features. more Carolyn Sessa