Trying For Change
This is Hila Elmalich, an Israeli model who died of anorexia in 2007 on her 34th birthday. She was 5ft 8in and weighed only 49 pounds. HIla had been hospitalized several times before she died, trying to fight this horrible disease, but finally, anorexia got the better of her and she collapsed in her home after she suffered heart failure, a result of anorexia. Her eating disorder began around the time she started modeling, when she was 13 years old.
Fashion photographer Ada Barkan has been trying to help anorexic girls since 1997 when he witnessed the disorder firsthand. A fifteen year old girl named Caty asked to meet with him to find out "what a model should look like." She arrived at the meeting at 5ft 7in, weighing 79 pounds, and Barkan could tell that she needed to be hospitalized right away. She was hospitalized for 5 months, and Barkan visited every day. A couple of months later, Barkan was asked to talk about his work on an Israeli lifetime show. At the end, the producer of the show said she had a surprise for him. Caty walked out on the floor, gave him a hug, and told him that he saved her life. Since then, he has done everything he can to help women suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Hila's case of anorexia had been the worst he had ever seen.
Immediately after her death, Barkan started a campaign to "change the definition of beauty" by encouraging models not to be so skinny. Shortly after he started this campaign, a law was written Israel requiring a model's BMI (body mass index) to be no lower than 18.5. A model must be able to provide a doctor's note showing they had maintained a healthy BMI of 18.5 for three months before a photo shoot or a catwalk show. Something else that is affected by this new law is any company that uses photoshop to digitally enhance and alter a model in an ad to make a model look skinnier. There must be a disclaimer on the ad clearly stating that the photo has been improved from its original state and that it is near impossible to actually have the body that the model appears to have.
Fashion photographer Ada Barkan has been trying to help anorexic girls since 1997 when he witnessed the disorder firsthand. A fifteen year old girl named Caty asked to meet with him to find out "what a model should look like." She arrived at the meeting at 5ft 7in, weighing 79 pounds, and Barkan could tell that she needed to be hospitalized right away. She was hospitalized for 5 months, and Barkan visited every day. A couple of months later, Barkan was asked to talk about his work on an Israeli lifetime show. At the end, the producer of the show said she had a surprise for him. Caty walked out on the floor, gave him a hug, and told him that he saved her life. Since then, he has done everything he can to help women suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Hila's case of anorexia had been the worst he had ever seen.
Immediately after her death, Barkan started a campaign to "change the definition of beauty" by encouraging models not to be so skinny. Shortly after he started this campaign, a law was written Israel requiring a model's BMI (body mass index) to be no lower than 18.5. A model must be able to provide a doctor's note showing they had maintained a healthy BMI of 18.5 for three months before a photo shoot or a catwalk show. Something else that is affected by this new law is any company that uses photoshop to digitally enhance and alter a model in an ad to make a model look skinnier. There must be a disclaimer on the ad clearly stating that the photo has been improved from its original state and that it is near impossible to actually have the body that the model appears to have.
What Have Other Countries Started To Do About This?
Fashion Week Madrid only allowed models to be a part of their catwalk show
if they had a BMI of 18 or more.
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Fashion Week Madrid only allowed models to be a part of their catwalk show
if they had a BMI of 18 or more.
- Fashion Week Milan will not let models with a BMI under 18.5 on the catwalk
or in photo shoots. - The U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority banned ads that show models that
they deem too young or too Photoshopped - In 2012 the 19 editors of the global editions of Vogue magazine pledged that
they would only work with "healthy" models and to no longer use models under the
age of 16. - 14 year old Julia Bluhm of the U.S.A. was tired of people from her ballet
class complaining about their weight, so she started a petition on Change.org
saying that all magazines should produce one unaltered photospread each month.
This page got over 80,000 signatures from around the world. As a result of this
campaign, Seventeen Magazine made a "No Photoshop" pledge that started in August
of 2012.
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