An obsession over food, weight, and appearance that disrupts not only one’s health but also careers and relationships occupies over 10 people in the United States. This obsession is known as an eating disorder. Having been a problem for decades, one would assume that cures and ways to help those affected would have been developed; however, the number of people with eating disorders is only increasing. This increase is due to the media’s portrayal of the ideal body. Due to not only photoshop, but also extreme dieting and exercise, models have come to obtain unhealthy, unrealistically thin bodies that many civilians admire. Exposure to billboards, commercials, and runway shows create an unattainable body image in many female’s heads which leads to an obsession with one’s self-image. Not only do teenagers view these models through their presented professional work but also model’s personal social media accounts. These accounts are what many girls scrutinize through and eventually aid in the development of their own insecurities. These insecurities stem from the comparison of one’s own body to that of model’s, which are generally acquired from unhealthy habits such as excessive exercise and minimal eating. Social media accounts are of dire importance when considering the promotion of eating disorders because the pictures posted are often posed to seem candid and effortless. Although they seem impromptu, in reality hundreds of other poses and pictures occurred that same day before a “candid” was chosen to post. This is what adolescents focus on, for they assume that the model’s figures are effortless and natural. Teens desperately seek ways for their own figure to look like the idolized thin body type and the methods to do so are most often unhealthy. The regulation of model’s health would be momentous in the reduction of eating disorders among teenagers. With anorexia having the highest death toll of all psychiatric disorders, immediate action is essential to the nation’s health. Model agencies employing models that are required to have monthly health checks and a certain Body Mass Index will reduce eating disorders and insecurities among teens who attempt to imitate the unrealistic, dangerously thin body types of models pop culture has come to praise. 

Gisele Bundchen, the highest paid super model in the world, gets paid a whopping 16.5 million dollars a year to look pretty. However, modeling is not all the fun and games its worked up to be, for models put in endless hours at photo shoots sometimes lasting up to 16 hours. When they are not at photo shoots they are still working, whether it is going to fittings, creating diet plans, or working out; being a model is a full-time job that consumes all hours of every day. Not only from self-desire to be thin but often a large amount of pressure from agencies drives models to push their bodies to extremes. Many wonder why the bone thin body type is so desirable to fashion designers when the bodies of most models appear to be far from healthy. Fashion designers claim that curvy models who have hips and breasts distract from the clothing they are wearing. In an attempt to keep the audience focused on just the garments being worn, models are expected to “turn the[ir] bod[ies] into literal cloth[ing] hanger[s]” (Kaye). Successful models are women with petite body frames, boasting little to no substance to eliminate distraction of the audience’s attention from the designer’s clothing. These runway models are being employed to be living mannequins and the beauty or health of the model themselves is the last priority of fashion designers and model casters. 

Thin models are highly desired not only to keep the center of the viewers’ attention on the garments being worn, but also because being thin is associated with high class and wealth. The upper class can afford top of the line trainers and nutritionists and “as calories have become cheaper and obesity a sign of ill education and low income” (Kaye) the social divide is growing. The upper class are the loyal customers purchasing and wearing the high end clothing from the runway, so fashion designers seek their approval by presenting them with models of seemingly similar worth. Many believe that “in fashion, [one] can never be too rich or too thin” (Kaye). The worth of these models is determined by their thinness which associates them with the upper class and alludes that they also have access to the top trainers and nutritionists similar to the wealthy celebrities attending the runway shows. Model agencies and fashion designers seem to care more about their reputation in society rather than the appearance and health of the models they employ.

Models are role models to not only teenagers that follow their social media accounts but also women who aspire to imitate their seemingly healthy lifestyle. By promoting healthy eating and regular exercise models encourage others to be healthy, but the line between what is healthy and what is too far is not clear. After constant focus on losing weight, some models cannot stop this extreme life style of cutting down and eventually develop eating disorders. When models lose weight their agencies continue to push them to lose more until their once curvy figure withers away. Rosie Nelson, a famous model employed in the United Kingdom, speaks up in an interview on YouTube. This interview shows from a firsthand perspective how her agency kept forcing her to lose more weight. She told the camera that once she would lose the weight she was expected to the agency would continue to push her to lose more. Because modeling was her source of income, Nelson succumbed to the pressure like many other models and strove to keep losing weight. Nelson believes that agencies should not be the ones determining the health of the models but rather certified physicians. Giving agencies power to determine models health gives the models who are desperate for employment no choice other than to prioritize their jobs over their own wellbeing. Nelson feels so strongly about this topic, having experienced the unhealthy pressure herself, that she created a petition about regulating weight within modeling. When a model herself speaks out about the health dangers in modeling it should be clear to the government that action needs to be taken. Government action is crucial because not only is the wellbeing of models in danger but also women who are comparing their bodies to the malnourished women on the runway. 

Human’s tend do judge their own bodies harder than others do, and women are the main culprit of this unhealthy mindset. Fashion designers and model casters do not realize the negative effect not only psychologically, but also physically, that the comparison of one’s body to that of models has. The general public notices how unhealthy most models look but “the problem is skinniness only seems to truly upset those existing outside of the fashion industry” (Kaye) so no drastic change has been made. A woman once observed and recorded how women interacted and reacted with each other in a gym locker room and her observations show just how self-conscious and unhappy most women are. One day while the author was admiring a women’s slim body the women turned to the mirror and exclaimed “Ugh-I’m so FAT!” (Goldman 39). This shows how judgmental women are of themselves, and even when others admire their body it is hard for women to be happy with it themselves. After comparing their body to bodies seen in photoshopped pictures and anorexic models, it is a struggle for women to be happy with the bodies they were born with. This is not only due to the admiring of others bodies but also the jealousy and anger women express towards others when they are unhappy with themselves. The author took notes on the “insults women hurled at themselves like drunken Cubs fans, the public trading of body flaws like so many stocks and bonds” (Goldman xx). Women who develop these insecurities attempt to bring others down so others experience the same insecurities that they have. This, in turn, spreads the psychological disease to others and causes eating disorders to be so common. Insecurities are especially exposed in the locker room, where all parts of one’s bodies that are usually masked by clothes are visible. The insecurities become especially prominent because “without the armor of clothing, we fall prey much more easily to low self-esteem, personal insecurities, and the scrutiny of those around us” (Goldman 45). The author of this book shows how the comparison of each others body is not just with models but occurs every day between average women. Models; however, set an unrealistic body goal for women to compare themselves to and this is what leads to women to extreme dieting. An experiment conducted by The School of Psychology in Australia tested a group of people to see if images of celebrities truly did have a negative effect on one’s mood and self-image. Fifteen pictures were chosen from Instagram consisting of five of the most followed female celebrities, five random women with the same attractiveness as participant, and five traveling destinations. The participants rated their mood before and after viewing these images and the effects that images of women and celebrities had a negative effect on the participant’s mood while the travel pictures had no effect. This shows that while viewing other pictures of other people the participant’s mood decreased because of dissatisfaction with their own body. When women view other’s bodies their mood decreases so when they view bodies of those who are unrealistically thin their self image is harmed. The comparison of bodies occurs within women every day and when the media displays the unrealistically thin bodies of models the comparison is intensified. 

Many cities all over the nation have noticed the health issues involved with modeling and enforced laws to regulate their health. Madrid was the first city to act on the popular debate and after receiving “pressure from anti-anorexia activists, the regional government and Spanish Association of Fashion Designers argued that their goal was to promote healthier images of beauty to protect not just consumers, but also models themselves” (Sadre-Orafai). They enacted a law that no agencies could employ models with a Body Mass Index below 18, a number that is already lower than the National “normal body weight.” Even with a Body Mass Index below the average, many models were taken off of the runway and the fashion industry was not happy, but the health of those models employed by them was saved. In Milan, action was also taken when the government “signed an ethical code of self-regulation that included a licensing process for models, a minimum working age of sixteen, and a BMI threshold of 18.5” (Sadre-Orafai). By doing so, young girls were not exposed to body image obsession acquired from pressure to be thin from employers like most models experience. Soon after, Paris, one of the leading fashion cities in the world, also joined the movement. Not only do models have to present a document confirming they are fit for work, but also images photoshopped to make girls appear thinner must be labeled as photoshopped. Paris created consequences for people defying these laws that consist of fines and even jail time. This was momentous in the movement for the regulation of model health having been harshly enforced by one of the most reputed city in the fashion industry. No decrease in eating disorders can be seen yet due to these laws having been passed so recently but there has been a significant increase in model health. 

Women compare themselves to others almost every second of every day. This constant comparison leads to insecurities and eventual eating disorders because when women compare their bodies to that of models they take dieting to the extreme. The majority of models employed today starve themselves and work out for endless hours a day. Model agencies should not be able to employ models who are bone thin and on the verge of starvation. Not only because this is dangerous for the health of models but also because they are in the lime light and many look up to them and try to obtain similar body types. This is why eating disorders among teenage girls are so common because they often stalk models on social media, on the runway, and in magazines and develop insecurities when their bodies are not perfect. Fashion designers claim thin models are required so the garments being displayed are the main focus of the audience; however, the health of human beings should be valued more than the appearance clothing. They also believe that thin models resemble the upper class but thin should not be associated with wealth. Extreme thinness should instead be associated with malnourishment due to poverty and lack of resources. Many experiments and observations have been done proving that the comparison of one’s body to that of a model is often what leads to a negative self-image. Observation of women in a gym locker room showed that even women who had ideal figures were still unhappy with their bodies. Similarly, the experiment conducted showed that women’s mood decreased when viewing pictures of celebrities because they compared their looks to images that were photoshopped and professionally produces. Regulating the health of models would also regulate the health of the many people who aspire to look like them. Many cities have created laws already regulating the health of models and the results have proven to have a positive effect because models now have a right to their own health. If the United States were to regulate laws involving modeling agencies requiring regular health checks for models they employ the amount of girls with eating disorders would reduce drastically. 
