Bosnian refugee hailed a model size 16

BOSNIAN refugee Margareta Osti, is Woman magazine's 'size 16 plus' model of the year - an award that proves, according to the magazine, that large really is lovely.

Ms Osti, a student and au pair, looks after three children in west London. Born in Sarajevo, she is from the Muslim-controlled enclave of Mostar in central Bosnia: her parents and grandmother live as refugees in a camp near Zagreb after a grenade attack forced them to leave their home.

Ms Osti is half-Croatian, half-Italian and 23 years old. She has won a weekend in Paris, pounds 1,000 worth of clothes and a year's modelling contract in the competition which is open to women who take clothes size 16 or above.

'She'll now appear in the fashion pages of Woman and I hope she'll inspire women to feel more confident about their size - whatever it is,' said David Durman, the magazine's editor.

But does Ms Osti look forward to a career in modelling?

'Definitely not] I'd like to run a big import-export company, be a big businesswoman. That's what I'm training for at the moment,' she said.

(Photograph omitted)