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'I started breaking my ribs': Fashion week models hit back against the pressure to lose weight

Models such as Hartje Andreson are posting on social media about the unhealthy body image standards they are pressured to achieve
Models such as Hartje Andreson are posting on social media about the unhealthy body image standards they are pressured to achieve Credit: Instagram/ Hartje Andreson

With New York Fashion Week in full swing, hundreds of American models have joined a social media campaign targeting the industry's 'unhealthy attitudes' towards their body shape. 

Working with the Model Alliance and the National Eating Disorders Association, models are signing an open letter to the American fashion industry, encouraging them to "prioritise health and celebrate diversity" on the runway. 

The campaign, which is being shared across social media platforms, refers to a recent study from the International Journal of Eating Disorders, which surveyed young American models and revealed their widespread adoption of unhealthy eating practices in order to be more successful professionally.

"Too often, models are being pressured to jeopardise their health and safety as a prerequisite for employment" it reads. 

Of the 85 models involved in the survey, 81 per cent were underweight, and 65 per cent said that they had been told to lose weight by their agents. Over 70 per cent had dieted, and more than half had skipped meals or fasted.

The open letter highlights that eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of any mental illness, and can cause "irreversible damage" to sufferers.

Using the hashtag #dearNYFW, models are now sharing stories of the pressure they claim to have been put under by agencies to continually slim down, even when they are already underweight. 

On Instagram, Brooklyn-based model Hartje Andreson wrote that at her most successful point in her career ("when I had my weight down to nearly 100 lbs [and] my hip circumference finally measured 34 inches") she started breaking ribs when she exercised.

She was so underweight that her bone density had been affected. Others speak of impossible diets and the detrimental impact their work had on their mental health. 

#DearNYFW - when I had my weight down to nearly 100 lbs, my hip circumference finally measured 34 inches, and I had my best fashion show seasons. However, as an active person, i started breaking my ribs quite often, during exercise or by bumping into things. I was shocked to learn that being underweight had both caused my body to lose bone density, as well as affected my fertility. Even though the idea of gaining weight terrified me, I was very fortunate to have support through my agencies, who embrace who I am and see my health and fitness as an asset, as seen on the right. #DearNYFW, as models, we care about each others’ health, so when we saw the findings from @ModelAllianceNY and @NEDAstaff ’s research study, we decided to stand together and use our platform to affect change. please understand that it is part of the fashion industries responsibility to promote and encourage HEALTHY BODIES, and DIVERSITY in AGE and ETHNICITY . #healthy #happy #modellife #fit #strong #nyfw #modelalliance #climbing #bouldering #modelswhoclimb #girlswhoclimbrocks

A photo posted by hartje (@hartjeandresen) on

The day this picture was taken, the photographer refused to let me return to set until I had eaten a plate of pasta—more than I had eaten at one sitting in months. I was so angry. Yet, he was the only person back then who pointed out I had a problem: I was eighteen years old, six feet tall, and weighed 113lbs. Based in Paris, I worked every day, often flying in and out of European cities for bookings. When—understandably—my body could no longer sustain this lack of nutrition vs. energy exertion and I started gaining some weight, I was taken into my agency director’s office and told to not eat for the next 2 days and to not eat much at all for the next 2 weeks. The next day, I was sent home feeling like a failure. I never heard from that agency again. A teenager, I had only been doing what was asked of me in order to succeed at my job. The damage all this did to both my body and mind is something that will never escape me. Last week @modelallianceny published results from the first ever study of its kind citing evidence of the prevalence of not only eating disorders in the fashion industry, but of those in charge verbally demanding it. This is harmful for both the models involved and those who view their images internalizing that this is how a healthy woman's body should look. Now is the time for change. No woman fits into one body shape, size, or color. It’s time for the fashion industry to reflect this and for women to stop suffering for the sake of an arbitrary, unrealistic ideal. #dearnyfw #modelallianceny #timeforchange #diversityinfashion #bodypositive #eatingdisorderawareness

A photo posted by Ainsley McWha (@home.sweet.idahome) on

#DearNYFW follows previous campaigns led by plus-sized models and others in a bid to create a healthier working environment for women on the catwalk, and to change attitudes towards female body image. 

 

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