VIDEO PHOTOS Model Ioana Spangenberg has 20-inch waist

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the meals of Romanian woman Ioana Spangenberg! The 30-year-old model is quickly becoming an internet sensation after photos of her 20-inch waist grabbed headlines in Europe this weekend.

Ioana spoke with The Sun and insisted that her diminutive frame was not the result of not eating. “No one seems to believe it, but every day i eat three big meals and I snack on chocolate and crisps all the time. I just have a small stomach. It’s a bit like a gastric band, if I eat too much I feel sick.”

Ioana does wear corsets, which can make your waist smaller with persistent use, so her look isn’t completely natural. (Don’t try this at home, kids.)

Spangenberg says (My first job as Ioana’s English-speaking publicist would be to get her a new name – I’m thinking Ivana Milkshake?) she weighed seven pounds when she was born and seemed to grow into (or not grow into I suppose) her current 5ft 6 inch, 84-lb frame.

She insists that she has tried to put on weight by gobbling up Mars Bars and other sweets to no avail. “In Romania it is better to be overweight,” she says, “because that means you are from a wealthy family.”

Ioana was always uncomfortable with her body size until she married German Jan Spangenberg in 2007. “Jan was the first person who saw me as beautiful and encouraged me to celebrate my body. He asked me to pose in some photos for him. He was so impressed he put them online and the response was amazing.”

So what are Ioana’s plans now? Is she hoping to take the world by storm as the “World’s Thinnest Model?” Not really. “I would still like to gain weight so I don’t look so shocking — and now that I live in Germany I can’t get enough pizza or kebabs.” But even with the desire to gain more weight, thanks to her husband and the amazing responses to her body online, Mrs. Spagenberg is able to feel better about her unique attributes. “I’m finally comfortable in my own skin,” she says.

(It’s a good thing she’s comfortable in her own skin because for every other adult it would be way too tight!)

Ioana’s also comfortable in someone else’s hair! Here she is with blonde hair in a modeling photo that’s not trying to emphasize her tiny waist:

In case the still images aren’t enough, or perhaps you think the images are just the result of Photoshop, you can watch Ioana Spangenberg’s wasp-like frame in motion in this video clip:

And for those of your curious what Ioana Spangenberg looks like without a corset or other device enhancing her thin waistline, here she is wearing a bit of revealing lingerie in which you can see her natural unnatural body:

There are also a number of topless photos of Ioana out there for those curious – just Google her name with the mature filter off and you should have no difficulty finding them.

Photos: Facebook