Some of them spend their days hungry in order to meet the demands of their employers. Many use cocaine to suppress their appetites. Those who are already naturally slim take laxatives regularly because they aren't thin enough. They avoid dining with their friends and are often fatigued due to inadequate consumption of nutrients. They average 15 to 20 percent below a natural, healthy weight for their age and height.

Who are they? They are the glamorous women that we love, admire, and are dying to look like. We are impressed with their image, daily seeing them spread across billboards, in magazines, and on T.V. We beat ourselves up because we do not have their physique. They are the standard, the women who were able to discipline themselves sufficiently to achieve the “acceptable weight.”

What?
Does this sound warped? Yet we continue to support their industry by purchasing their magazines and products. This is not the life of every fashion model, but there aren't many who have a healthy relationship with food and their body. It's unfortunate that we've bowed our head to this ideal of thinness that has been presented and demanded of us. We are humans not cardboard cutout, factory produced mannequins. We all have different shapes, sizes, and curves that should be respected. It's one thing to desire to eat well and get exercise to optimize your well being and look your best. It's another to sacrifice your health in order to obtain an unnatural standard.

“I want to be able to share with young girls and women today that being thin, being in a magazine, or being accepted even by an industry that may appear glamorous isn't going to fulfill you. There will always be an emptiness until you let go and be yourself.” says Virginia Morse, a fashion model from Los Angeles . Ana Curdo, a model from New York explains, “ I have not met one model thus far who has a clean record when it comes to food and eating. It prevented me from going out with friends to dinner, to social occasions, and from trying new things for fear of being out of control.” There are plenty of tales from models just like these; their stories are the same.