'Plus size' Scots Angelica Gray model poised to be fashion's next big thing

•Model example: Angelica Gray flew to Milan last month for a photo shoot for Vogue Curvy, an off-shoot of Vogue Italia.

With a Vogue photo shoot under her belt and an option to become the face of one of Britain's biggest high-street brands, 19-year-old Angelica Gray is well on her way to becoming Scotland's first plus size supermodel.

Gray, from Glasgow, is a size 12, as compared with the normal model size of six. With a growing international profile, she is now a standard-bearer for the backlash against super skinny models.

Despite her above-average proportions, she has already been snapped up by agents in Australia, America, Belgium, London and Germany as well as in her native Glasgow.

Last month, she flew to Milan, where she was the subject of a photo and video shoot for Vogue Curvy, an off-shoot of Vogue Italia, and next week she will travel to New York where she is "on the option" with Evans, Britain's biggest plus size high-street retailer. That means she's on the firm's shortlist for a major campaign.

"Things are really exciting at the moment," she said. "It's nice to be accepted the way I am, and be considered for big campaigns like Evans. It makes me pleased that I didn't have to change to fit into this industry and that I can work anyway. That's a nice feeling.'"

Gray, whose grandmother was a model for French fashion house Dior in the 1950s, has also recently completed a fashion shoot in Milan for Elena Miro, the top end Italian designer who exhibits at Milan Fashion Week, as well as a shoot for the London fashion magazine Glass.

Victoria Allison, model booker at Model Team, Gray's Scottish agency, says that Gray's look is unique. "She has an amazing classical beauty. She's almost like a Botticelli angel. She's got the whole package. We didn't feel it was a gamble at all to take her on because she was a size 12. As soon as we saw her, we knew our clients were going to absolutely love her."

The fashion world has suffered a wave of negative publicity in recent years for its use of size zero models on catwalks and in magazines. Yet, in recent months, plus size model Crystal Renn, the current face of Evans, has appeared on the pages of US Vogue, while French Vogue recently devoted an entire issue to plus size models. Meanwhile, British designer Mark Fast sent size 12 and size 14 models down the runway during his London Fashion week show in February of this year.

"The market does seem to be changing," said Allison. "The profile for plus size is definitely rising and there is more interest within the fashion industry. Girls like Angelica are proving that curvier models can be just as beautiful as a slimmer model and can work equally well in high fashion clothing."

Gray, who has just been nominated for Scottish Model of the Year 2010, says that she's happy to be representing curvier women.

"I'd like to think that people might look at me and feel more relaxed with themselves," she says. "I do sometimes have fat days and think that I don't fit into this size zero image that the media has created for us, but I think that it's important that we stop seeing that image all the time.

"We should be seeing a kind of normality that young women can identify with, so that they can think, 'I can be beautiful too'. The biggest thing with the fashion industry is that it's always somebody else's idea of what beautiful is, so you start to doubt your own."

Dr Alex Yellowlees, head clinician at the Glasgow Priory, who regularly treats Scottish women who suffer from eating disorders, says that young people are still very influenced by the fashion images they see.

"The fact that a size 12 is seen as 'plus size' when it's just normal is unhealthy in its own right," he said. "We absolutely need more normal-looking women like Angelica out there.

"We need healthy looking role models – women who are psychologically and physically healthy – because young people are turning to them for direction about how they should look in the world and what size is acceptable."

But Scottish fashion stylist Lindsay Campbell, who has worked for publications including Vogue, sounded a note of caution.

"Designers make clothes for smaller women because their opinion is that the clothes sit better," she said. "Small models don't interrupt the garment with a bust or a bum – that's why it's been this way for so long. But then again supermodel Sophie Dahl did very well and things are starting to change in the fashion world."

In the long term, however, Campbell says that Gray's size could become a hindrance. "She's got to be careful she doesn't get pigeon holed as the plus size girl," she said. "Being a model you've got to be versatile, and she doesn't want to get herself into that plus size rut. As a model you've got to be able to wear anything."

Gray however, says that she would never consider losing weight in order to get more modelling jobs. "It's just not possible for me. I love food so I couldn't do it. It's not in my body to do that. I'm not saying there aren't women in the world who are built to be a size eight but I'm not one of them. All women should be represented because we're not a one-size-fits-all world. There should be space for everyone."