What does Tori look like?

Tori, Tori, Tori…

I actually have a friend who’s named Tori… she actually gets mentioned a few times in these posts. She’s an impressive lady and has achieved a lot in a pretty short time in her life, which is awesome. She’s beautiful, talented, charismatic and successful? How is that fair??

Anyway, finding a model to live up to the real-life Tori AND who looks like the Tori-in-my-head was…challenging…a struggle… a real bitch-and-a-half.

Tori-in-my-head is beautiful, but doesn’t know she’s beautiful – softly, naturally beautiful, not the not the kind to back-hand you with her beauty and ability to do her hair and makeup and choose a good hairstylist. But she’s also tough. The world has kicked her in the face a couple times, but she still gets back on her feet and moves forward.

I also wanted her to be “average” in size. When are the plus-sized girls gonna get their own romance novels?? (I’m sure they exist, but they’re harder to find in my experience.)

Something I loved about Twilight (and I guess 50 Shades), forgive me, was Bella’s average-ness. Bella Swan (and her 50 Shades doppelganger) was the quintessential definition of average. She was the every-woman/girl. Pretty, not too pretty, smart, not too smart, the girl you looked past, who you maybe were friendly with, who had something special inside, if only people could see past the surface. She’s you and me. She’s not the person who gets swept off her feet by sparkling vampires and billionaire kinky playboys.

I LOVE that. So I went with a version of that for Tori. She’s beautiful, and it gets noticed, but she doesn’t see the beauty and the special in herself. Elizabeth sees it (and nurtures it), Brady saw it (and tries to smother it), Nate sees it (and is drawn to it and wants it near).

Tori is (perhaps) you and me – stuck in a life she didn’t prepare for and trying to make the best of the situation. It’s not that she’s not happy, it’s just not… exciting. Then Nate Stone comes in and her world shifts on its axis.

So I was looking for a plus sized woman, big boobs and butt, gorgeous-but-soft-but-tough-but-kind with the right coloring who looks like there’s some freak in her, buried deep down, and is so naturally beautiful that even a Hollywood celebratory who has his pick at a buffet of women would sit up and take notice.

Months of searching came back fruitless. I kind of landed on one girl, Hannah Mavestread.

(Again, I do not own these photos, do not sue me. And all I know is that I found them on Google Image Search)

She’s pretty but she’s not… I don’t know… something. Right. Missing the je ne sais quoi… Not Tori… (Though I can completely imagine her working in some backwoods diner…which might be an insult, oops).

So, 2 weeks before go day, I started looking again. It was bothering me. I’m doing final edits and I can’t concentrate because my Tori pictures were wrong. So back to Google I went…

I went back and forth, researching woman after woman… at one point Liv Tyler’s sister (and Steven Tyler’s daughter) Mia Tyler was in the running (but she’s covered in tattoos, so not quite right).

Finally, I got to two – both beautiful and busty and naturally gorgeous.

Jennie Runk

Who is fantastically gorgeous.

And Tara Lynn.

I called up friends who had read one of the first drafts and got their opinions — who is the right Tori?

Tara Lynn.

She’s stupid beautiful.

That girl looks like a fighter.

She has both strength and vulnerability behind her eyes.

She looks like the type of woman would storm out of a 5 star restaurant if she felt that she was being disrespected.

I can’t believe anyone has kicked her out of bed, even if her body isn’t “perfect” by some arbitrary, unreachable standard.

She looks like she’s got some freak in her.

And, apparently, my hunch wasn’t wrong because, come to find out, she did a BDSM-themed NSFW photo shoot, where you can see everything god gave her… http://www.stylehasnosize.com/2013/home/sexy-tara-lynn/