“The size zero phenomenon is affecting our society.”

“The fashion industry is to blame for body image issues.” I won’t lie, models are under pressure to be thin. But lets face it, a model is a freak of nature. How many people are born six feet tall, with size 2 bodies? Not many, they are anomalies. And, when you sign up to modeling, you sign up to staying thin all the time. That is your job, simple as that. Actresses, on the other hand, are a different matter. You don’t need to be six feet tall, or a size 2 to be a successful actress, yet for some reason Hollywood has become obsessed with dieting and plastic surgery.

And the media doesn’t help by publishing photos of actresses and singers who are “too thin”, “too fat”, and with “too much cellulite.”

Hollywood is much more to blame for body issues than the fashion industry is, and even within the industry, models are not the ones to blame. Journalists are just as bad, if not worse, with their eating habits. I once saw a fashion week food diary from a designer, a model, and a journalist, and the journalist ate by far the least, in fact, she was dangerously below a healthy calorie intake. My friend works as a designer at Dior, and she told me about an American press lunch she attended. She was sat around a table with a bunch of American journalists, and most of them didn’t eat their lunch. In fact, one actually said “I don’t do food.” So let’s leave the poor models alone. Most of them are 16, having to get naked in front of loads of strangers, and will have to retire when they are 28, because they will be too old. So it is not that great of a job.

“The size zero phenomenon is affecting our society.” Ok, yes, I won’t deny that size zero is not a very good thing to be exposed to when you are a vulnerable 14 year old girl. But the fact is, there are way to many over weight people than there are underweight people. I think it is important to realize when you are overweight, and when you are dangerously overweight, but as long as you are happy and healthy, you shouldn’t put pressure on yourself. The UK was one of the main “voices” in the size zero debate, and they also have terrible media that criticizes celebrities and follows them like crazy. But the UK is very close to catching up to the US in terms of percentage of overweight people.