From the Peruvian mountains to the pages of a glossy fashion magazine, Wendy Harrison has had a jet-setting week.
Soon she won't be getting out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.
The Tauranga 29-year-old travel adviser had just returned from a trek in the Peruvian mountains last Tuesday when she
decided to telephone her workmates at House of Travel in Willow St.
Her call was met by shrieks of excitement.
Colleague Jenny Anderson revealed the pair and fellow travel advisers Debra Lamartinie and Tracey Bluck were winners in a Dove Curvy Calendar Girl competition.
The beauty product company is flying the curvaceous quartet _ who range in age from 29 to 43 _ to Auckland today for a photographic shoot where they will be wearing Bendon lingerie to complement their womanly figures.
The calendar will be distributed in the January edition of She magazine and their image may also be gracing billboards throughout the country.
The group were one of three groups and eight individual women selected out of 2000 entries for the nationwide competition.
They sent in a picture of the four of them laughing in their underwear after Mrs Lamartinie saw an entry form in a magazine.
When asked what prompted them to enter, Mrs Lamartinie replied, "Because we're all ..."
"Curvy," Mrs Anderson interjected.
"And nuts," added Mrs Lamartinie with a laugh.
Another motivating factor was the $5000 cash prize for the overall winner.
If the group win, they plan to donate half the money to Hospice New Zealand.
None of the group has had photographic modelling experience before and admit the initial photo shoot required a fair bit of wine-assisted courage and lots of giggles.
Mrs Anderson said they were keen to have a go to show "being size six wasn't the be-all and end-all".
Similar campaigns by Dove using "real women" as models have proved popular in the UK, US and Australia.
The Curvy Calendar Girl competition is an attempt to widen the stereotype of beauty from the swizzlestick size six figures that dominate magazines and advertising by putting a collection of more realistically proportioned women in their underwear.
Research shows 71 per cent of New Zealand women claim the media and beauty advertising have the most negative impact on the way they feel about their looks.
Mrs Anderson agreed. "It's depressing. It effects big women's self-esteem seeing that all the time," she said.
Humour has curvy ladies exposing themselves
From the Peruvian mountains to the pages of a glossy fashion magazine, Wendy Harrison has had a jet-setting week.
Soon she won't be getting out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.
The Tauranga 29-year-old travel adviser had just returned from a trek in the Peruvian mountains last Tuesday when she
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