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Emily Prior - Reproduced with kind permission from The Hereford Times
Emily Prior - Reproduced with kind permission from The Hereford Times

Emily's "Society" Writing Warns About Slavishly Following Fashion

15th November 2007

With two friends admitted to hospital with anorexia, within three weeks of each other, College student Emily Pryor is very conscious of the pressures faced by many teenagers, and especially teenage girls, to be skinny.

Those pressures come from advertising, from fashion pics and features where so many models and celebrities seem to be promoting (or aspiring to) size four – or even ‘size zero’, and from the vast array of articles on diet in magazines and newspapers and on TV. Much of this appears to equate thinness with beauty and desirability, and with success.

Rather than be sucked into this culture, and in the hope of persuading other teenagers of the dangers, Emily recently wrote an article for Herefordshire Society, a magazine from the Hereford Times’ stable, which offered an alternative viewpoint. 
 
“Believe it or not,” said Emily, “many people I know have come up to me telling me they have read the article at work or at home. It’s quite amazing, and it’s good to know my piece has registered with them. The idea that skinny is the only way to be beautiful is, to me, an unhealthy idea of perfection.”
 
Emily, who is studying English Language, Drama and Theatre Studies, and Film Studies, is conscious that while many teenagers like her read Society, its core readership is adults. This, she feels, is an advantage as many of them are parents. “It is important that they too are clued up about the pressures their daughters face, and are able to take a very rational and more rounded look at these issues – to help safeguard their youngsters by making them aware that there is a more balanced approach to fashion, diet and health” Emily insists.
 
With a healthy and balanced interest in fashion and health, Emily recognizes that for many people, these are Important factors in their day-to-day life.
 
Her article in “Society” (reprinted below, with permission of Hereford Times) has given Emily a taste for wanting to write more, an essential ambition as she wants to be a journalist. has given Emily a taste for wanting to write more, an essential ambition as she wants to be a journalist.

“At the moment, I am too busy with A Levels to write more at present, but my message to fellow students and other teenagers is that they should keep healthy, without getting ill – and not to be slaves to fashion or diet.”

Skinny Care?
Statistics reveal that three-quarters of girls aged eight to 13 would like to change something about their appearance, while two-thirds of 10-year-old girls equate blonde hair with being beautiful.

To make matters worse for young girls, it is now believed that celebrities and models aspire to be a size four - totally unrealistic as that is really a child's size which can only be obtained by under-eating and excessive exercise.

Singled out for criticism is the fashion industry itself and the media representation of super-thin celebrities, leading to girls growing up today equating thinness with success, beauty and desirability.

However, photographs can be airbrushed to create the illusion of perfection and models made to look thinner with flawless skin.

Author JK Rowling has already revealed she is worried about her daughters growing up to be "empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones". She wrote on her website of her concern her daughters would "have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world" and that her comments were prompted by photographs of a very young woman in a magazine who, she claimed, was either seriously ill or suffering from an eating disorder.

But maybe there are changes afoot. Only last month a report called for London Fashion Week models to prove they did not suffer eating disorders, even if it did not recommend banning size zero girls from the catwalk. The move was one of 14 non-binding recommendations made by the Model Health Inquiry, set up in March by the British Fashion Council.

A teenager's routine contains more than socialising and going out with friends. Behind closed doors radical diets, exercise routines and dangerous eating disorders lurk. Many teenage girls read magazines and, regardless of what gossip magazine it is, it will, somewhere, have a heavy influence on someone's life, especially when there are headlines such as "get a bikini body in seven days, lose weight fast and diet pills that really work". Then there are pictures of super-skinny celebrities strutting around in designer clothes. The underlying message of all of this is that skinny is the only way to be beautiful. What an unhealthy idea of perfection.

While I don't agree with this, I read magazines constantly and still feel the pressure to be skinny. I deal with it by trying to lose weight, swapping lattés for skinny lattés, snacking on fruit and vegetables, going to the gym and running. And then at other times I find myself asking: Why should I be doing this?

The idea that thin is beautiful can, sadly, be taken to extremes in the form of eating disorders and the modelling industry does society no favours. I can't get my head around what is attractive about looking like a walking bag of bones. Why do people aspire to look like this? This distorted idea of what is beautiful has led many teenagers to believe that this is the way we should look, which is outrageous.

I have looked at websites where people have been writing comments about the size zero trend and the majority seem to believe that a size 10-12 depicts a real woman. Yet within the industry a size 12, I understand, is considered a Plus Size model! I am a size 12 and I find it very hard to believe that I am obese, yet the magazines I read lead me to believe I should be a size six or eight.

A search on the internet also reveals that the average dress size of UK women is actually 16. I want the magazines to show curvier women, such as Jennifer Lopez, and Beyoncé. These are real role models. Women should have curves and a bottom. Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé are both larger than a British size 10. Who can possibly look at them and say they aren't beautiful?

Whether it sets out to or not, the fashion industry has a heavy influence on teenage society and this is why something has to be done.

Last year Spain banned models with a body mass index of less than 18 from taking part in Madrid's fashion week while the death of a Brazilian model from complications related to anorexia led to a campaign there to bar underweight and underage models from the catwalk.

In Italy, its fashion industry and government pledged to keep to a voluntary code of conduct. It was introduced in a bid to keep unhealthy models off the catwalk by insisting they provided a medical certificate to prove they did not have any eating disorders and banned the use of models aged under 16.

Although organisers of this year's London Fashion Week said they'd asked designers to use only "healthy" people in their shows, they refused to ban ultra-thin models. What message does that give us? 

Emily Prior

Ed.

The Review Online