5 Models who’re challenging the norms of the modelling industry
Originally published 29 September 2015
Rosie Nelson is the newest heroine for the body positive movement with her petition to regulate the weight of models in the UK.
Recently, there has been more criticism about models in the fashion industry. They have been too skinny for too long, bordering on unhealthy and anorexic. People have been murmuring and mumbling about doing something soon, but only now have things started to get serious.
An Australian model working in the UK, Rosie Nelson, has made a petition following some of her experiences in the industry. As a perfectly average size 8-10, an agency she tried to work with told her to ‘lose more weight’ and she had to be ‘down to the bone’. She has even been on shoots for up to 10 hours where no food was provided, with the underlying message being that you shouldn’t eat.
She is hoping that this petition will campaign for the government to look at the possibility of legislating to ensure models are of a healthy weight, in hopes of protecting other young boys and girls in the modelling world.
She, along with many other women have been raising their voices and advocating for body positivity, by just being true to who they are, or giving a voice to the people who have none, and inspiring others to be confident and love themselves. These include models like Tess Holliday, a size 26 model, and Ashley Graham, the first plus-sized model to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, who also gives TED talks about body positivity.
When even people in this industry can see that there is a problem, we need to sit up and listen. Thousands of people, especially young people suffer from body image issues, and it is because of the glorified models who are unhealthily skinny and being led to believe that this is ideal beauty. Rosie Nelson and many others want to prove that beauty is being healthy and happy with who you are.
A positive female role model taking a step to change the standards of beauty is comforting, and hopefully even more will grow outspoken and make changes for this cause as well.
