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Journalist and helicopter pilot Lauren Sánchez was as soon as rejected as a flight attendant by Southwest Airlines for weighing too much.
In a brand new interview with WSJ Magazine, Sánchez, 53, shared that she did not make the lower for Southwest’s weight limitations again in 1989.
After leaving house at age 18, Sánchez, who’s at the moment in a relationship with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, moved to Los Angeles within the hopes of changing into a flight attendant. However, Southwest Airlines instructed her she weighed too much to work for them.
“Back then, they weighed you, and I weighed 121 kilos,” Sánchez defined to the WSJ. “They stated, ‘You want to be 115.’”
While Sánchez’s incident occurred again in 1989, Southwest’s guidelines have modified since then. On their present prospective flight attendant careers page, the airline requests that potential job candidates meet sure specificities, together with a minimal age of 20 years previous and a “well-groomed look.”
“Weight should be of such proportion to top {that a} neat look is maintained and the bodily potential to carry out all job features will not be hindered,” the web site reads. Attendants additionally should additionally be in a position to “raise 50 lbs. to shoulder top amongst different bodily {qualifications}.”
Looking again, Sánchez says she is aware of what she would inform the airline today if she have been rejected: “I don’t need to be a stewardess. I need to be the pilot!”
While Sánchez was in search of out a job as a flight attendant, it is not unusual for ladies to face criticism over their weight when in search of out jobs in Hollywood and past. Jennifer Lawrence beforehand was requested to lose 10 kilos for her function as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. However, she refused to accomplish that.
“Those books have been large, and I knew that the viewers was youngsters. I keep in mind the most important dialog was, ‘How much weight are you going to lose?’” she instructed Viola Davis throughout Variety’s Actors on Actors series. “Along with me being younger and rising and never in a position to be on a eating regimen, I don’t know if I need all the women who’re going to costume up as Katniss to really feel like they’ll’t as a result of they’re not a sure weight. And I can’t let that seep into my mind both.”
Amanda Seyfried has additionally spoken out on the difficulty, sharing on Twitter in 2014 that she “nearly misplaced out on a number of roles in my profession as a result of I used to be obese. Wrong, America.”
Following her rejection from Southwest Airlines, Sánchez went on to a prolonged profession in journalism, whereas additionally changing into a seasoned helicopter pilot who nonetheless tries to fly not less than 3 times per week. She additionally spends a major period of time with Bezos, who formally break up from his spouse of 25 years, Mackenzie, back in 2019. In January of that 12 months, it was revealed he was in a relationship with Sánchez, who on the time was married to Patrick Whitesell, government chairman of the leisure company William Morris Endeavor.
These days, the couple, who’ve seven youngsters between the 2 of them, are studying to operate with a blended household. Sánchez has nothing however raves for her man, whom she calls “goofy” and says he “makes me snort on a regular basis.”
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