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Goodshoot/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- H&M made headlines last month when it featured plus-size model Jennie Runk in its new swimwear ad campaign.

In an industry where swimwear is traditionally modeled by willowy or waifish models, Runk’s appearance in the retailer’s general -- not plus-size -- swimsuit campaign sent a strong message.

Runk, 24, is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and wears size 12 or 14.

In an open letter this week posted on her Facebook page, and reprinted by the U.K.’s BBC News, Runk railed against the general obsession with size.

“People assume plus equates to fat, which in turn equates to ugly.  This is completely absurd because many women who are considered plus-sized are actually in line with the American average,” she wrote.

Runk, who was discovered when she was 13 years old, had a choice to lose weight and remain a size 4 or gain weight and kick-start her career as a plus-size model.

“I knew I was going to end up gaining weight anyway,” she said in an interview with ABC News’ Bianna Golodryga that aired Friday on Good Morning America.  “I was getting hips, I was growing into a woman, so I figured it was easier.”

That kind of confidence has served her well in an industry where some retailers -- most recently Abercrombie & Fitch -- don’t even offer clothing in her size.

Asked how she avoided negative thoughts about her body, Runk said, “I am the only one who can judge me.  My opinion is the only one that matters when it comes to me.”

Runk credits her success to the many other so-called plus-size models who blazed the trial before her, including Robyn Lawley, designer Ralph Lauren’s first plus-size model.

“I met a lot of them and they taught me a lot of what I know now,” Runk said.

Runk hopes she has helped start a conversation that may change attitudes about beauty and the so-called “mean girl” culture that sometimes comes along with  it.

“Our bodies are built to be naturally different sizes,” she said.  “To denote any of these body types negatively is only hurting all of us, because that’s where you get girls of one body type slamming another to make themselves feel better.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Courtesy of Carolyn Meiselbach(NEW YORK) -- What do you do after you’ve survived six strokes, beat cancer twice and suffered from osteoporosis, arthritis and diabetes?  If you’re 79-year-old Carolyn Meiselbach, you go skydiving.

Meiselbach said she leaped into the upstate New York sky last month to settle some unfinished business.

“When I was young, I went through a 20-week parachute training course.  But I was afraid to make the jump because there was no reserve chute,” she said.

The great-grandmother took the leap from more than 13,000 feet up despite three doctors advising against it.  She sustained only one minor injury, a bruise on the chest from where her pacemaker mashed up against the parachute harness.

The jump, Meiselbach said, was terrifying.  The worst part was sitting on the floor of “the narrow, dinky plane which was not exactly a 747″ waiting for her turn to jump.

“I made the mistake of looking down,” she said.

But as soon as the instructor pried Meiselbach's hands from the plane’s door and led her out into the air, Meiselbach said it wasn’t so bad.  She concentrated on keeping her mouth closed so she wouldn’t lose her teeth or look weird in the pictures.

Meiselbach is a 24-year resident of Carroll Gardens, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y.  She served six years in the U.S. Navy and raised two sons as a single mom.

Considering all she’s been through, she said getting pushed out of a plane was a piece of cake.  She’s planning a second jump for her 80th birthday in October.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio