Nineteen-year-old Harriet Taylor is proud to be a healthy, slender size six but she’s angry she is being made to feel like less of a woman because she doesn’t have “curves”.

She feels she is being punished for having a healthy lifestyle because society is pandering to those who don’t.

“As a society we have changed from having an attitude of tolerance, to acceptance and now promotion of people being overweight and obese,” Ms Taylor said.

“We’ve seen this through things such as increased sizes on clothes, having “plus-size” shops and brands, and widening seats on aeroplanes.

“Instead of making allowances for people, we should be encouraging them to exercise and eat healthy food. It’s not hard to do 40 minutes of walking or bike riding three or four times a week.”

The psychology student believed personality, motivation and impulse control had as much impact on physique as genetics.

She struggled to understand how governments could condemn smokers to the extent of taxing cigarettes and implementing plain packaging laws, while society was willing to support those who were overweight or obese.

And, while larger women enjoyed increasing options in “plus size” fashion, Ms Taylor said it was almost impossible to find nice, fitted clothes to complement her small physique.

“Anything I grab off a rack makes me look like a 12-year-old girl who hasn’t hit puberty yet,” she said.

“This is my reward for exercising and eating properly: Not being able to find things small enough.

“Am I being politically incorrect? I hope no one expects me to apologise if I hurt somebody’s feelings, but people need to start waking up to the reality of this situation, and that reality is you need to burn as many calories as you consume each day to be healthy.”

Ms Taylor was not the only person who had noticed the increased availability of “plus sizes” in fashion stores correlating to a lack of petite sizes.