She has always been quirky and girly, and now Zooey Deschanel is telling us one doesn’t have to be anorexic to be successful in Hollywood. She’s a living proof of that. She’s not a ‘new girl’ in Hollywood, but she hasn’t been pressured to be thin to keep her career.

What you see is what you get. And we say you don’t have to be skinny to be pretty. The New Girl looks beautiful as she covers the February issue of Glamour magazine. In one photo, she pulls a pretty red pout while clad in a very feminine checkered dress accented by a little red belt.

Zooey tells Glamour:

“Women I admired growing up— Debra Winger, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep—were all beautiful and thin, but not too thin. There are a lot of actresses who are unhealthy-skinny—much, much too skinny.” 

Pretty but not too skinny

Apparently, the actress isn’t bent on punishing herself by starving or doing overzealous exercising. She adds:

“I’m a very small person, and if I lost 15 pounds, I’d look like them; it’s scary. For young girls, what does that say? You need to look this way to be successful? That’s not true. You do not need to look or be anorexic to be successful in Hollywood. The range of what’s acceptable is larger than what people believe.” 

We believe exercise and a balanced diet should be maintained to keep a healthy lifestyle, but like Zooey Deschanel, we also believe a waif-like figure isn’t a requirement for success.

Catch Zooey on the latest issue of Glamour out on January 8!