Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi was quick to respond to critics who claim she looks “too thin” in promo photos for her upcoming ‘Dancing with the Stars’ television gig.
The reality star said, “People are jerks. I don’t look emaciated — I look healthy!”
Polizzi, of ‘Jersey Shore’ fame, has dropped 50 pounds since giving birth to her son Lorenzo in August 2012. Her all-time high weight was 146.
She says emphatically, “I’m 4-foot-9, which is the size of a third-grader, so weighing 96 pounds is normal for me. People ask me why I’m still working out — I’ll gain the weight back if I don’t.”
We’ve added a comparison photo, captured at an MTV Movie Awards event in 2010, to showcase her dramatic weight loss.
The 25-year-old was born in Santiago, Chile and adopted by her Italian-American parents when she was six-months-old. She picked up the nickname ‘Snooki’ in middle school and it stuck.
She’ll be showing off her fancy footwork beginning September 16 on ABC, when ‘DWTS’ premieres. Her partner is Russian dance pro Sasha Farber — seen in a Twitter photo that she captioned, “Just stretching #dwts #sasha”
Check out a photo gallery featuring the entire season 17 celebrity cast with their partners.
Photos: WENN, DWTS-Facebook, Twitter-Snooki