by Jules Vanselow, Reporter
Sitting on my best friend’s bed surrounded by people eating copious amounts of junk food, but I found I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t eating. One of my friends turned to me to ask a question.
“Do you starve yourself?”
I’ve heard that question a million times.
It’s also a question that young models are often asked. It’s asked with little to no caution or sympathy.
“Do you feel skinny enough?”
“Are you in the gym, like, all the time?”
“Do you feel ugly around other models?”
“Don’t agencies want you to look like (blank)?
I am a published model, and I believe there is way too much controversy on the damage the modeling industry can cause.
I’ve heard it all — that modeling promotes unhealthy body types, oversexualizes young girls, and spreads the concept that there’s only one way to be beautiful. The truth is, while there are some slimy people in the industry, and some negative things about modeling as a whole, most of these impacts are overexaggerated.
The diversity in the modeling industry isn’t necessarily plentiful, but it’s improving. With models like Barbie Knox, a plus-size model who signed with Wilhelmina NY, and Winnie Harlow, a model with a skin condition called Vitiligo, our selection of American supermodels is growing in inclusivity. Designers are opening their campaigns to a range of shapes and sizes, rather than only the thin, tall girls you expect to see.
With this increase in diversity, I never feel bad about myself because of my modeling career. Regardless of the agencies that labeled my hips as “too big,” or the designer who said I might be “too tiny” for her clothes, I have always felt just right.
That is, until people around me started realizing that I model. That’s when the questions started.
So, of course, I started wondering; Should I be thinner? Should I eat less and work out more? Should I feel bad about myself?
For so much of my life, I’ve been told that modeling is damaging, that it messes with young girl’s minds. I have been told that the modeling industry as a whole will reject anyone who isn’t a size two and five-foot-ten, with blonde hair, blue eyes and perfect teeth.
But from what I have seen in the modeling industry, it is a world where each and every person is embraced as a unique individual, and although it’s an industry revolving around appearances, there isn’t just one template for beauty.
Perhaps the real problem lies behind the words of those outside of the industry.
With people asking questions about a model’s body, lifestyle, and confidence, it’s no wonder that young models feel negatively about themselves.
The modeling industry is not what affects model’s confidence.
It’s the stigma around it.
