Modeling; hurting more than helping

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Eating disorders are no joke and more than half the time, this problem begins in girls as young as grade one. One thing that plays a huge role in low self esteem and disorders is modeling. Showing hardly dressed women with legs the size of the average person’s arm is not putting a positive image in the minds of young girls. Modeling should not be used because it can be extremely harmful to others.
Many young girls read magazines and watch TV and look up to the models that they see. They then get the idea that their bodies should look that way and if it does not, they are unattractive. It is said that models promote you to be “comfortable with the skin you’re in” and to be yourself but how can that be when the size of models are getting smaller and smaller. As these negative thoughts sit in their heads, their self esteem begins to plummets to an all time low, ultimately doing the opposite of what was intended. Frederique van der Wal, a former Victoria secret model went to the New York Fashion Week show back in 2006 and said “I was shocked by the models that seemed to be skinner than in previous years” (Hellmich1). If a former model can see the damage in extremely skinny models, society and agencies definitely should. Models make girls, especially from the ages of 13-25 feel extremely bad about themselves. Above all, society makes model’s body images seem like the right or “perfect” image and for the sake of girls’ self esteem it needs to stop.
Eventually, low self esteem can turn into much more drastic issues like anorexia and bulimia. What many do not know is anorexia is more than a physical disease; it is also a mental disease. The thought of being “thin like the models” gets stuck in their heads, making them refuse to eat and co...

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...needs to be eliminated immediately. People everywhere are being affected and hurt by too thin models and the agencies that are not correctly doing their jobs and taking anorexic models off the runway. Being thin is only a trend, but the consequences will last a lifetime.

Works Cited

Critchell, Samantha. "Vogue Bans Too-Skinny Models from Its Pages." Newsday. 04
May. 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Hellmich, Nanci. "Do Thin Models Warp Girls' Body Image?." USA TODAY. Sept. 25 2006: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Rodenbough, Libby. "Killer Fashion: An Industry in Denial." In These Times. Apr. 2011: 22-25. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Rubin, Shira. "Israel Tells Underweight Models to Gain Weight or Get Off the Runway." Christian Science Monitor. 04 Jan. 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

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