By Dannah Gresh, founder of True Girl
Recently, plus sized model Robyn Lawley landed a contract with Ralph Lauren to the worldwide applause of mothers who want to raise healthy daughters. She's the first of her size to achieve such an iconic place in the modeling world, and yet... she remains "too big" for the runway.
Runway models, whose BMI and weight usually qualify them to be labeled anorexic, do not send a healthy message to older tween and teen girls who keep fashion magazines thriving in a world where that medium is fast becoming a dinosaur. Most models in those magazines is 23 percent thinner than the average woman. (Twenty years ago they were only 8 percent thinner.)
Though she's broken barriers for her size, Lawley is still fighting to be accepted as beautiful. Take a look at the editing work done on Lawley in this Ralph Lauren ad:
A picture is worth a thousand words. UNREAL! These are the standards that are being set for our girls? It's actually noticably ridiculous. Look how healthy Lawley really looks on the runway.
Since the publication of that ad, Lawley has come out with REAL photos of herself. She's often in her underthings, so these are not photos that every girl needs to see, but if you think it would be encouraging to your girl to see the real shape of a beautiful, healthy model, go for it! Here are some conversation starters if you decide to take time to look at Lawley's unretouched (and often immodest) photo library.
•This model tried to get smaller, but couldn't. Based on the photos, do you think she needed to be smaller?
•You begin to believe anything you dwell on. Knowing this and seeing the truth in these photos, do you think it's a good idea to feast on fashion magazines?
•If the modeling industry is not representing all sizes, but represent anorexic (eating disorder) sizes what does this say about who they represent? Should we want to look anorexic?
•Since we can't get a true picture of beauty (literally) from the modeling world, where should we look?
