Good news for the fashion industry – and the world abroad. Vogue Magazine is committing to no longer using underaged models, or models who appear to be too thin.

Specifically, the company and worldwide fashion leader has agreed to “not unknowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder.” And in addition, they’re also establishing a mentoring program for younger models, and encouraging designers to make clothes a more realistic size as to encourage models to be at a healthier weight.

In a statement issued by Conde Nast, the publisher’s International Chairman Jonathan Newhouse said, “Vogue believes that good health is beautiful. Vogue Editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers.”

This was exciting news for Sara Ziff, a model discovered as a teen who has since founded the Model Alliance – an organization dedicated to improving the working conditions of models and persuading the industry to better care for its young models.
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Unknown to many, Amanda Beard silently struggled with bulimia and depression for years. The multiple Olympics medal winning swimmer and successful model agonized for years over her physical appearance. Even though everyone else saw a thin beautiful and successful woman, Beard thought of herself as fat, ugly and a failure.
In her college years she had begun cutting herself to deal with the extreme agony she was going through. Along with the cutting, she became bulimic as a way to cope with all the pressure and her low self-esteem. Through the years, no one suspected a thing because on the outside she appeared to be so successful.
She told Today’s Ann Curry, “I felt like an idiot saying I was struggling so much inside because I was an Olympic athlete. I was having a great career. I had my own house. There were all these great things going on in my life, but on the inside, I was hating everything about me.”
Beard began to feel the pressure at a young age. She won her first medal when she was only 14 years old. She said that it was a lot for a teen to take in, that she felt the constant need to look beautiful, thin and perfect. The pressure was magnified when during her second Olympics in Syndney in 2000, the media began saying she had put on weight.
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A groundbreaking law passed in Israel last week bans both male and female models from working if they are too skinny.

Israel decided to use the standards of the body mass index to determine if a model is underweight. The body mass index, or BMI, measures your weight and height to determine if you are at a healthy weight or not. It’s calculated by dividing your height in meters and your weight in kilograms. This formula is used by organizations including the US Military and the World Health Organization to determine quickly and easily how healthy someone is. It is an estimation of someone’s health, as opposed to an actual detailed analysis.

There are four categories a person could fall in. The first is underweight. This is anything less than 18.5. Second is healthy weight, which is 18.6 to 24.9. Next is overweight, which is 25-29.9. Finally, obese, which is 30 and above.

Based on the BMI standards a model, for example, who is 5 foot 9 inches must not weigh less than 125 pounds. According to this Israeli law, any model hired for a job, can not fall under 18.5 BMI. If a model falls into the underweight category he or she must have a doctor’s note saying they are healthy.
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Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate achievements by women and inspire the generation of girls that follows. Women’s Day has been celebrated since 1909 when it was a National Woman’s Day. Today is a great day to think about nurturing a healthy body image in young girls. Whether you are a teacher, coach, mentor, or parent, every adult woman can make a difference in the lives of young girls.

One way to create an environment that promotes positive body image is to declare a Fat Talk Free Week. All of us can be role models of health for the children in our lives. While friends may influence kids more than we can, it is important to know that how much your kids eat is influenced by who they are with. To teach kids to have a positive body image, we must first learn to be confident in ourselves.

Mothers need to know just how their attitudes, choices, and words influence their daughters’ feelings about dieting. Parents also need to know how to talk to their teens about health, even though for many parents talking about weight is even more difficult than talking about sex with their kids.

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Dr. Oz ditches all his surprising tips for health and fun animations for a very serious topic. The Dr. Oz Show will be interviewing anorexic women who are on the brink of death in today’s episode, “ Women take drastic measures to be thin.”

Dr. Oz will be interviewing a 31-year-old woman who weighs 73 pounds and survives by a feeding tube. The doctor will also hear her husband’s plea for help as the two try to lead her out of anorexia.

Dr. Oz will also speak with a woman who has turned to anorexia as a method to lose the weight she does need to lose. She has currently lost 70 pounds through anorexia and admits, “I need to lose weight and this is working.”
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