a bit bigger because then I wouldn't have to deal with this the whole time. There is pressure on them to stay thin, and I'm always talking to the designers about it, asking why they can't just be a bit closer to a real woman's physique in terms of their ideal, but they're not going to do it. Clothes look better to all of our eyes on people who are thinner". In 2009, Shulman spoke out over the sample sizes leading designers were producing – some were so small they restricted Vogue using the models they wished in the magazine, resulting in some models being airbrushed to look bigger. Shulman wrote to designers to draw their attention to the situation calling for larger sized samples to be produced. Contrary to expectations, Shulman describes her own life as work-dominated and not particularly glamorous. In an October 2004 newspaper column on her Telegraph portrait, she said: Leaving aside the obvious but unlikely criteria of beautiful and thin, I realised that there was no look that was achievable which was going to make me happy. In my mind I am a free spirit of about 25 wafting around in second-hand cocktail dresses; in reality I am a 47-year-old businesswoman and journalist. The pictures unfortunately, tell the whole story. She was a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph newspaper, but began writing a column for the Daily Mail in 2006, which ran until 2009, when she was replaced by Liz Jones. Shulman's first novel, Can We Still Be Friends?, was published by Fig Tree in 2012. In 2010, Shulman was awarded an Honorary Master of Arts degree from the University for the Creative Arts. In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. Shulman was interviewed by Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 in June 2013. In 2016, Shulman collaborated with photographer Josh Olins to shoot Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on the cover of Vogue's centenary issue. On 25 January 2017, approaching 25 years as editor-in-chief, it was announced that Shulman was leaving British Vogue in June 2017. Shulman stated: "last autumn I realised that I very much wanted to experience a different life and look forward to a future separate to Vogue". In 2018, she launched her personal website https://www.alexandrashulman.com/ Shulman is a