You see this girl?
She’s fat.
Her name is Alison Boxer. She’s sixteen years old and a contestant on Australia’s Next Top Model. She stands 5’6″ and weighs 120 pounds (55kg), which puts her firmly in the underweight category according to the BMI (for what that measure is worth).
And yet one week into filming the reality show, which starts airing in July, the network has asked her to lose weight.
The network says they asked for her to lose the weight from her waist, while Boxer says she was asked to lose it from her thighs and hips. Frankly, I don’t care which area(s) they want her to slim down. She’s already very thin, and they are trying to demand that she become thinner still. Why?
“Hopefully, we have a range of body shapes, faces and personalities, but tall and slim is what works,”
What I want to know is how having only tall girls who are extremely thin can provide a ‘range of body shapes.’
Suck it, Australia’s Next Top Model.
Alison, you don’t need to lose weight. Young women watching television don’t need to hear that extremely thin is too fat.
Not only is she already very skinny, the claims of infomercials aside, who has control over the region from which they lose weight? No one, that’s who.
Studies have repeatedly shown that exercising a given region builds muscle tone there, but does not necessarily correlate to fat reduction in that area.
Comment by Mango — May 15, 2010 @ 10:00 am
Thanks so much for posting this among the brouhaha about how “curvy” (I’ll set aside how much I hate that euphemism for now) models are all the rage. Bull—-. This kind of craziness is still going on in the industry. Crystal Renn, and all the others, as lovely as they are? They’re just (slightly) meaty bones thrown to us now and again.
Comment by Mrs. Hendricks — May 15, 2010 @ 12:34 pm
It’s disgusting, but the worst thing? She is SIXTEEN years old. Makes me sick that such a young girl is being pressured like this.
Comment by Fat Heffalump — May 16, 2010 @ 2:37 am
So with all three of you. I’d note that at sixteen, chances are she’s still growing and she’s definitely still maturing physically. I would also note that at sixteen I weighed 115lbs and stood 5’2″. I was thin. So I weighed five pounds less than this girl, stood four inches shorter, and could just about start counting my ribs when I stretched my arms above my head.
That kind of puts this into perspective for me.
Comment by Twistie — May 16, 2010 @ 11:14 am
Also, it’s almost impossible to TARGET an area for weight loss. If I could just lose weight off my belly and maybe pack it in my backside, I would. Biology doesn’t work that way!
Comment by Diana — May 16, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
When I was sixteen, I was *so worried* about my body. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have your weight and body discussed on national television. This is a sick, sick world that does that to young kids. I don’t care if she thinks she wants to be a model or not–the rest of us, including the people that are lined up to exploit her, should damn well know better and act better.
Comment by Lisa — May 16, 2010 @ 2:05 pm
Yes, but honestly? if she doesn’t want to be pressured at her looks or weight at her age, DON’T GO ON A MODELING REALITY SHOW. I don’t have a lot of sympathy, frankly.
Comment by harri p. — May 17, 2010 @ 12:14 pm
Think of all the women who are shorter and heavier than this lovely girl who are sent into a frenzy of dieting, exercize, and self-recriminations because they just don’t measure up. I have a lot of sympathy, but not just for this girl. For all her peers, too.
Years ago, I was approached by a modelling scout . I laughed when I realized what he was asking me. And when I told him that I was 5’5″, 30 years old, and 125 pounds and not getting any taller, younger, or thinner…he backpedaled so fast I almost as amused as I was insulted.
Comment by Sarah — May 17, 2010 @ 6:49 pm
If she’s 5’6″ and 120 lbs she has a bmi of 19.4, that is not in the “underweight” category. She is in the low end of “normal” which is a range of 18.5-24.9 BMI.
Comment by nadia — May 17, 2010 @ 7:52 pm
@nadia, You seem pretty tied to those BMI numbers. You might want to check out the articles below.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439&sc=fb&cc=fp
http://www.newsweek.com/id/213807
An individual’s BMI is not an indicator of health and the values are arbitrarily set.
http://www.bigfatblog.com/bmi-change-1998
http://www.slate.com/id/2223095/
Comment by jojo.k — May 19, 2010 @ 5:13 pm
not FAT at all….this hole thing has been taken way out of hands, the media does seem to take things a little too far, she probley was told to tone up not lose weight, i doubt they would do that!! besides you go into a modelling compettion, you know you would be hitting the gym hard and eating well, you have to be FIT to be a model! alison has a perfect body! in that photo. she prob just needs to tone up, like look fit, get more definition in her body…. like all models do :)
Comment by aka123 — June 23, 2010 @ 11:24 pm
@aka123: She was told to lose inches off these supposed ‘problem areas.’ That’s not a little toning, it’s significant weight loss.
Comment by Twistie — June 24, 2010 @ 1:18 am