Modern Models taking dangerous risks to be skinny- weight minimum should implemented.

Essay by cclarkkk1223College, Undergraduate November 2012

download word file, 9 pages 0.0

An Unhealthy Image

Over the years, models have become skinnier and skinnier, and now most models are just too thin. Being a fashion model went hand-in-hand with being slim, but now being a fashion model goes hand-in-hand with no body fat whatsoever. It took the death of a young adult at a fashion show taking place during Fashion Week for officials in Madrid to finally say 'No more' to overly underweight models, and others are being to follow suit. Luisel Ramos was one of Uruguay's top fashion models at the age of only 22. In preparation for Uruguay's Fashion Week, she stuck to a strict diet of only lettuce and Diet Coke for about three months leading up to the show. Shortly after exiting the runway during a fashion show, she collapsed backstage trying to fight through a heart attack, but because of the lack of nutrition was unable to win the battle (Phillips).

The strict dieting Ramos stuck to left her weighing only 98 pounds. This is the average weight of a 12 or 13 year old standing a little over 5 feet tall, but at a height of almost 5'10, this is alarming (Average Height to Weight Chart). That's a body mass index, or BMI, of only 14.5! BMI is calculated using a person's weight in conjunction to their height and is used to categorize a person's weight to determine if they are underweight, average weight, or overweight. (Healthy Weight: Assessing Your Weight: Body Mass Index (BMI)). According to The World Health Organization, a BMI of 16 is already considered starving, so 14.5 is extremely underweight. To add insult to injury, Lusiel's 18-year-old sister died the following year for the same contributing reason, malnutrition (Phillips). Australia, along with some European countries, and a few case-by-case fashion shows...