Too Thin? | Teen Ink

Too Thin?

May 24, 2010
By Anonymous

I dare you to open a magazine and not think the models are too skinny. When my mom ran the New York Marathon she was taking pictures and came across the article that said “Barbie Banned”. She was interested so she came home and showed it to me. I was shocked when I read that an 11 year old girl learned that if Barbie were a real person, she would be 6' 0", weigh 100 lbs that is 6 inches taller than me and 1 pound less. When this girl learned this, she immediately thought she was too big around and wanted to do something about it. The little girl had mentioned to her mom that she wanted her legs to be the same width around when she was standing up and sitting down. In order for this to happen she would have to have only bone and skin. No matter how skinny you are your legs are always going to look bigger when you sit down, but this girl disagreed and took her diet way to far and nearly killed herself.

If you think about it, it isn’t just how disgusting you’re outside looks, but the look on the inside of your body. Normal? Definitely not. “This unnatural thinness is a terrible message to send out” a former Victoria Secret model that was recently fired for being three pounds over the ideal weight. I am not exactly sure what are world has come to because now about 8,000 Americans have some kind of eating disorder and that means that millions are dying each day. It only takes six to eight weeks to die of anorexia or bulimia. If you dig deep into the Dr.’s world you will find that if you are under weight then you run the risks of many diseases such as malnutrition, dehydration, high blood pressure, and an unusual disease called lanugo. Lanugo is where your body grows soft downy hairs to try and keep you somewhat warm during certain points of starvation. There is also tears in the esophagus which can brought on by frequent vomiting this can result in vomiting blood is so hard on your body. So if this is so disgusting and dangerous then why do modeling agencies ask for it?
If almost all models are too skinny and have eating disorders, don’t you think that gives off the wrong message to the kids who look up to them? Some people that kids may look up to and have eating disorders (or had) are Ashlee Simpson, Olsen twins, Jane Fonda and many more.
As you may see kids today love the TV and love the radio and we should be taking precaution about what they are getting out of it. Kids and teens might think they need to change their self-image. There is so much peer pressure in the world and a psychiatry school in Chicago did a study on why people wanted to look that skinny. The results? Well 8 out of ten people said that they wanted to look that skinny because all the really really skinny people are so famous and rich and really successful and get all the good men and women. I don’t know why you would risk your life just to be rich and famous.

We ask ourselves, if it’s so ugly on the outside and on the inside and people are striking and disagreeing with it, then why do they want it? Designers to wake up and smell the coffee. They are putting their clothes on unrealistic people with disgusting appearances. Nobody is going to want to buy their collection when it is on a sixty pound girl. If you watch America’s Next Top Model then you may know Whitney the winner of cycle six. Whitney is a “plus size” model, but really she is the perfect weight to be an average person, but the people in the modeling world disagree. Tyra Banks the host of ANTM told Whitney that she would no longer be called a plus size model but would be known as America’s next top model. From this season on there is always a plus size model on the show and the camera always shows all the models eating burgers and fries. Why can’t every agency do that? Because they are scared and clueless, scared that if the people that are wearing their clothes aren’t perfect then they won’t sell. Clueless that we don’t like being forced with the image of “you can only wear these clothes if you’re this size.”
Anorexia and eating disorders are a part of this world. I believe that it is our job to stand up and say that we don’t want the next fifty generations to be forced with this message just like we are now. So they need to stop believing that we do like it and they need to stop it today.


The author's comments:
this piece is my opinion on what modleing agencies are asking for today.

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This article has 4 comments.


LBwheel said...
on Jun. 9 2010 at 3:53 pm
LBwheel, Dallas, Texas
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
Thank you also and it is really sad and i hope that this piece will get us a step or even a half of a step closer to changing peoples mind. I am also not very good with grammar I am sorry about that.

LBwheel said...
on Jun. 9 2010 at 3:51 pm
LBwheel, Dallas, Texas
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
thank you so much you really don't know how much that comment means to me.

Loligrl14 said...
on Jun. 8 2010 at 4:17 pm
I thought this poem was absolutely amazing, and anyone who thinks defferently shouldn't say anything at all. keep up the good work, totally blew me away!

DumDum BRONZE said...
on May. 31 2010 at 11:05 am
DumDum BRONZE, New York, New York
2 articles 0 photos 41 comments

Favorite Quote:
Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss --Douglas Adams
You call it sarcasm, I call it wit.--Anonymous

Loved your piece. The images and ideas were great and I especially liked the bit about Barbie.

It's really sad how people believe that they have to starve themselves to be beautiful. And I really think the height is something we need to work on as well. To be a model, you have to be at least 5'8", while the average height for women is 5'4".

And your grammer is off and you should work on your layout. Technicalities, technicalities... :)