To wonder if this Zara model is a healthy size?

[MondayYogurt]

Most models are tall and slim but something just made me stop and look at these pictures for longer, wondering.

Is it just photoshop?

@PomegranateQueen

God imagine how this thread would have gone had the OP lifted a picture of a size 24+ model. Body positivity only seems to apply if you are obese. It's rare to have this model's body type, but women like this do exist and have feelings the same as everyone else.

Given that obesity related illness is one of the main causes of death in the UK, maybe we should shift our focus?

Yes this. Why is it ok to pick on skinny women? The fact is, people made negative comments to me when I was size 6 and size 16, so I don’t think you can ever win as a woman. Your body is always public property for people to comment on ☹️

Because I don't believe them @WorraLiberty

Also I still have the boney sticky out bit in my wrist, even as a size 12, it’s just how my bones are

She is a gorgeous woman, regardless of size. Please stop scrutinising and criticising her body. You are helping absolutely nobody.

Love threads like this. Brings me back to when I was 12/13 and had other schoolgirls laugh and call me anorexic and ask me how much I weighed. Suppose mean girls never really grow out of it.

Also interested in how many posters are actually that thin, its weird how the ratio of how many you see in real life vs how many people claim to be on threads like this is always really off.

It isn’t that weird. If you read negative comments about the models’ thinness and you are as thin as them but perfectly healthy, you are more likely to respond than somebody who is not.

I wish people wouldn’t assume that someone who’s very slim or (in their eyes) too thin, is necessarily starving themselves.

Some people just are naturally very slim, with very small appetites or just not very interested in food. Or they may eat like a horse and never put weight on - I’ve known someone like that - very high metabolism. 5 sugars in his tea or coffee, ravenous appetite and still like a rake.

I was once very slim, down entirely to a very small appetite (alas no longer) and was monumentally pissed off to find that a so called friend had been spreading rumours that I was anorexic. She based this on the fact that I had declined biscuits at her house - I dare say they were custard creams, which I. never liked anyway.

But in her eyes (someone invariably saying she needed to lose a stone or two and permanently on a diet she never stuck to) anyone who turned down biscuits just had to be anorexic.

I wish people wouldn’t assume that someone who’s very slim or (in their eyes) too thin, is necessarily starving themselves.

Or lying.

Why would people lie @coogee do you think I’m lying? That I made up that entire story about my childhood and subsequent eating disorder and then weight gain? Why would I or anyone else do that?

You can’t discount people’s stories just because they don’t fit in with your world view!

I hadn't been on the zara website for over a year as I was pregnant. when I went on it recently I was very shocked as the models all looked much thinner then what they used to have. It made me very body conscious about my post pregnancy body

My DD who has had an eating disorder cannot look at the Zara website for any longer than a few minutes as she finds it rather distressing and makes her feel fat (she's not).

It's a shame coz Zara clothes are lovely.

It's prompted me to write to them actually. It reminds me of the 'heroin chic' models of the 90s.

I know quite a few people with slim kegs like that.. I think she’s thin and long limbed.. when you’re long limbed, thin limbs optically look more slender. I would say she looks fine.

The second photo is posed a bit oddly. It looks unnatural which I think draws attention to the model’s very long arms and legs. She is very tall and thin, but that’s usual for Zara models isn’t it.

@gettinglikemymother the problem is if you accept the biscuit then you can be subject to "how do you eat things like this and stay so slim, what's your secret?" Then the bulimia rumours start, so there's no winning really.

I have a very overweight work colleague and it would never occur to me to ask her why she's having chips for lunch, or ask her why she is the size she is. That would be rude, and drawing attention to her size, and its none of my business. Yet its apparently fine to be all 'u ok hun' if someone is deemed too slim.

She does look pretty unwell. There is no way someone could naturally be that way without serious effort.

@lightlypoached

My DD who has had an eating disorder cannot look at the Zara website for any longer than a few minutes as she finds it rather distressing and makes her feel fat (she's not).

It's a shame coz Zara clothes are lovely.

It's prompted me to write to them actually. It reminds me of the 'heroin chic' models of the 90s.

It's pretty awful tbh. I wish shops would do more about this.

I was skinny like that when I was 19. Ate like a horse. I'm certainly not now. But there are some people who are just skinny. There are others who have issues. Who knows?

Why would people lie @coogee do you think I’m lying? That I made up that entire story about my childhood and subsequent eating disorder and then weight gain? Why would I or anyone else do that?

I think you misinterpreted what I said. Add “or lying” to the end of the bold text I quoted.

On closer inspection I think the thing that triggered my yikes button was her wrist bones in the hand resting on the car. But perhaps that's just the light and bones are just like that?

You can’t change how your wrists look (I don’t think you can anyway). Mine are like that. I’m skinny genetically (I’m not a low carb fad diet or whatever). You can tell by my face that I’m not ill though. Those who starve themselves or have seriously low calorie diets have gaunt faces with an almost grey complexion.

We don’t know if this model was photoshopped to have a glowy complexion and slimmed down body. It’s sad that many models starve themselves, but it is also sad that many women think it’s healthy to be overweight because it’s the “norm” nowadays. Stop body shaming thin women.

@BiscuitLover09876

She does look pretty unwell. There is no way someone could naturally be that way without serious effort.

Of course one can! There are lots of examples of people who look like that unintentionally. I looked like that up until the age of about 22, that's when my metabolism finally started to slow down and I managed to put some weight on. My DD is 18 and she looks like that now. It's not hard if those are your genetics. I have never once starved myself, and I was not an elite athlete who trained every available minute. I was just an average teenager who ate the same rubbish my friends ate.

Theres a whole range of natural body shapes that are healthy, and ones on the very edge of the spectrum will be very few and far between. (In RL rather than MN)
I dont think anyone is saying its healthy to be overweight, but I think its disingenuous to suggest that there are lots of people who naturally look like that and are perfectly healthy.
Its unhealthy to be very underweight - for some (and I mean very few) people that's their natural shape, and they are healthy, for some people illness or a genetic condition might mean this is their body shape but for the vast majority of women this is neither natural or achievable.

Stop body shaming thin women.

Someone who has chosen a career as a model, gets paid lots of money to be photoshopped to push an ideal that is unreachable to many young people is not the same as body shaming someone. Its really dangerous, and no doubt they are as much of a victim of the industry as those looking at home and developing unhealthy view of their body and of food. Of course being overweight is also unhealthy, and you'll find plenty of people comment negatively on plus size models, not sure why people assume it's always positive, and neither should be pushed as aspirational to sell clothes.

She does look extremely thin but not necessarily unhealthy. I have a friend like this, about 6 foot tall and healthy, exercises and eats well, just can't put weight on for toffee. She wishes she could! It's unusual but not necessarily unhealthy.

@sbhydrogen

What a boring thread.

Yet you've read it AND commented on it

My brother is very very slim. My m is always telling me "but he does eat". He eats, but when you actually analyse what he eats, its not enough for a 24 year old 6ft male.
Most people who are extremely thin don't wat enough. No matter how much people protest that they eat loads, rat like a horse etc. Its not true.