One of the most envied jobs in the world is that of fashion models, as wearing some of the hottest designer clothes, looking perfect and getting paid for that is definitely something that appeals to most women. However, it’s not the first time celebrity models talk about the dangers of modelling at a young age, as most models are recruited as early as age 14, so find out what Jamie King, Coco Rocha and Carré Otis have to say about the subject.
In an interview with Life & Style model Jamie King, 32, who started her career at age 14 said that she became obsessed with her weight and having a 20 inch waist in the 90s, and that she even became addicted to drugs. The model revealed that:
“I grew up in Hollywood, and my whole life I’ve believed that I have to look like a 14-year-old. I’ve had this weird expectation that I should weigh 118lb even though I’m 5ft 8½.”
Apparently, battling this preconception is not easy, as Jamie states that although she turned towards the help of a nutritionist, she still eats ‘like a toddler’. She says she lives by eating “little bites of lots of different things, like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, turkey bacon, oatmeal and chocolate-covered pretzels”.
Many models have raised alarm signals after adopting radical diets or developing eating disorders such as bulimia or anorexia and shedding pounds to extremes, until they flashed skeleton-like bodies.
World renowned models Coco Rocha and Carré Otis also revealed in an interview with Anderson Cooper that there is a high pressure in the modelling industry to look good, and at a young age this pressure can definitely have a negative impact. Coco Rocha herself battled preconceptions in modelling and even lost work for being either too thin of too fat, so she is trying to raise an awareness to what the pressure of modelling can do to girls who are too young. Coco began her modelling career when she was 14 and says she was living in NYC alone by the time she was just 16.
The model said that wanting to maintain thin can definitely take a negative turn especially in the absence of family, friends and school. She said: “That’s where girls have their issues. Why am I changing: they’re not told: You’re supposed to change, you’re supposed to get hips and boobs and you’re supposed to turn into a woman. Instead they believe I need to stick as this thin girl that I’ve been all my life so that I can continue on working, and they don’t understand that it is actually normal and it is OK.”
Carré Otis, who also battled an eating disorder says that: “I don’t think any young girl should be put in that situation. Period. It’s kind of like, would you let a 13 or 14 year old drive a car? You know! You’re not ready.” The model, who also shares her memoirs about battling an eating disorder and the side effects of the disease in the book Beauty Disrupted also said that: “I don’t want to put that image out to young women, that they have to look like a prepubescent girl. It’s really ridiculous. I knew that I was creating an unrealistic image.”
These are only a few models who are revealing the reality behind the glamorous life of models, reality that is sometimes difficult to see. Do you think only stick thin models are runway perfect?
Photos courtesy of Getty Images
