Anorexia Among Super Models

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Ana Carolina Reston was a Brazilian fashion model. She started her modeling career at the age of 13 after she won a local beauty pageant. She was a normal girl who grew up in a middle class family. Her life dramatically took a turn for the worst after her first overseas trip to Guangzhou, China. She went to Guangzhou for a casting call, while she was there she was repeatedly told that she was “too fat”. She believed what they said and starting her downward spiral of anorexia nervosa. Her diet consisted of only apples and tomatoes. She would tell her mother that she was fine and that she didn’t have anything wrong with her. Ana would do anything to avoid talking about why she wasn’t eating. Her body mass index dropped to 13.4. The World Health Organization considers a body mass index of 16 severe thinness, which she was well under. She weighed eighty-eight pounds at the height of 5 feet 8 inches. At the young age of 21 her illness became so severe that it became an infection and led her to her death in November of 2006. Society’s false perception and unrealistic views on how females should look has drastically increased and has caused many models to have eating disorders and go as far to surgically improve their bodies. (Phillips, 2007) Anorexia has always been prevalent in the modeling industry, unfortunately recently it has become even more prevalent. According to The National Institute of Health they estimated that the lifetime prevalence of anorexia and bulimia is 0.6 percent of the U.S. adult population, but among 13 to 18 year olds it is 2.7 percent. The ideal body for a female back in the 50’s and 60’s has drastically changed from the ideal body of a female now and has caused anorexia and eating disorders to become more pre... ... middle of paper ... ...w much she’s suffering to make sure you see the newest fashion trends. Works Cited Amorasak, Marisa. "Plastic surgery in the high fashion world."plasticsurgeryportal. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2014. Brumburgh, Gary. "Twiggy Biography." IMDB. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2014. . Levy, Andrew. "Anorexia tragedy of teenage cover girl."MailOnline. N.p., 30 Apr 2012. Web. 12 Apr 2014. Marilyn Monroe. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 09:56, Apr 12, 2014 Rao, Mallika. "On The Catwalk With 'Plastic Surgery Models." Huffingtonpost. N.p., 12 Sep 2013. Web. 12 Apr 2014. Taylor, Jonah. "Height, Age, and Measurement Requirements of Modeling. ." Modelingwisdom. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2014. "The Media." Something Fishy. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2014. Wikipedia. Heroin chic, 22 Sep 2013. Web. 12 Apr 2014.

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