It should be of no surprise that the fashion industry is not the nicest industry. A topic that continues to create endless debate is the weight of models. Society is reasonably concerned about the issues surrounding body image, eating disorders, and the dangerous and unrealistic messages being sent to young women via fashion media. One model has said something about it.

British Model, Charlie Howard, 23, claimed she was told she was “out of shape”, despite the fact that she is size UK 6-8, which is equivalent to US 2-4. The model had reached her limit when the unnamed modelling agency put her under pressure to lose weight before dropping her from its books.

Howard wrote an open letter about her experience which attracted messages of support from around the world for not meeting ridiculous beauty standards.

She posted to Facebook:

Here’s a big F*CK YOU to my (now ex) model agency, for saying… I’m ‘too big’ and ‘out of shape’ to work in the fashion industry… I refuse to feel ashamed and upset on a daily basis for not meeting your ridiculous, unobtainable beauty standards… The more you force [me and other models] to lose weight and be small, the more designers have to make clothes to fit our sizes, and the more young girls are being made ill. It’s no longer an image I choose to represent.

In case you hadn’t [realized], I am a woman. I am human. I cannot miraculously shave my hip bones down, just to fit into a sample size piece of clothing or to meet ‘agency standards’… A large majority of my clients are OK with this.

IMAGE SOURCE: FACEBOOK

IMAGE SOURCE: FACEBOOK

Head of women at global modeling agency Wilhelmina, Annette-Marie Kjean, shot back on social media with a response claiming that the model did not share the entire story. In fact, Kjean states that Howard was guilty of doing the same thing she was accusing the agency of.

IMAGE SOURCE: FACEBOOK

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