Cosmopolitan editor Farrah Storr defends decision to put Tess Holliday on magazine cover

'I’m celebrating her. I am not celebrating morbid obesity'

The editor of Cosmopolitan has defended her decision to place Tess Holliday on the magazine cover.

The October issue of the British magazine is model and body-positivity advocate Holliday's first Cosmo cover and it has been celebrated across the internet by many who have lauded the magazine for championing body positivity and embracing larger bodies.

However some people have reacted less positively to the cover, arguing that it glorifies obesity by featuring Holliday, a UK size 24.

(Cosmopolitan UK / Ben Watts (Cosmopolitan UK / Ben Watts)

And now the editor of Cosmo, Farrah Storr, has defended her decision to cast Holliday as a cover-model.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Storr said: “This is one cover, which has a larger lady on the cover, in a sea, in a world, in a culture which has venerated - since I can remember - thinness.

“Are people going to look at that and go, ‘Do you know what? I’m going to go and mainline doughnuts, this is what I want for my life’. Of course not. It’s patronising to say. I’m celebrating her. I am not celebrating morbid obesity.”

Storr was challenged by Good Morning Britain (GMB) co-host Piers Morgan, who has already made his disdain for the cover clear - last week he wrote on Instagram that he thought it was “dangerous and misguided.”

But Storr remains firm in her conviction.

“The reason [Holliday] is on my cover is to show there is a different way to look,” she said.

And GMB co-host Susanna Reid agreed, adding: “We do not all look like Cosmo cover girls. We don’t see it Piers. They are not going to look at Cosmo and try and be 300 pounds.”

(Cosmopolitan UK / Ben Watts (Cosmopolitan UK / Ben Watts)

Morgan asked Storr whether it would have been more responsible for the article to have suggested that Holliday may not be a healthy body weight.

Storr replied: “I am a journalist. I put the information out there. I’m not here to pass judgement on anyone.”

Asked whether it’s healthy to be 300 pounds at 5ft 3, Storr said: “For her, from what I have seen, yes. Could somebody else at 300 pounds be unhealthy? Absolutely.”

Holliday has herself responded to Morgan’s criticism too, saying that critics should: “Worry about what horrible people you are by whining about how me being on the cover of a glossy magazine impacts your small-minded life.”