"Sarah Robles isn’t your average athlete — for starters, on a good day she can lift 568 pounds, the equivalent of an adult male lion. At 23-years-old, she’s the highest ranked weightlifter in the United States, and is probably the country’s best shot at winning an Olympic weightlifting medal at the upcoming London Olympics. Unfortunately, she’s also impoverished – receiving only $400/month from U.S.A Weightlifting, she struggles to pay for food, often relying upon the kindness of her community to fuel her 4,000 calorie lifting diet. The cause of her struggle? Robles, who is 5 feet, 10.5 inches tall and 275 pounds, doesn’t qualify as conventionally attractive enough to net sponsorships and endorsement deals." - Jessie from Bookmarklet

"For Robles, competing at the Olympic level carries more than just a chance to win a medal, but also the promise of being a role model for plus-size women everywhere. She has branded herself as such: on her blog, Pretty Strong, she writes about weightlifting, the faulty assumptions of a culture that assumes that thin = healthy, and the importance of her mantra, “Beauty is Strength.” “I’ve learned that if you love yourself now, you can do amazing things. If you don’t, you’re closing so many doors,” Robles says. “It’s not an easy thing to do. It takes work and it takes practice. Just like my sport.”" - Jessie