Shockingly anorexic looking models in Zara catalogue

[BiscuitMillionaire]

This is jaw-droppingly irresponsible, in the section of the catalogue aimed at teenage girls.

I don't want to encourage anyone to browse their catalogue, but here's the link here

They are very thin yes....but so are a lot of women/young girls - that doesn't mean they are anorexic.
My body shape has resembled that of an 8 year old boy since I was about 12 - I only get boobs and a bit more chub round the hips when I'm pregnant
I was bullied at school for being "anorexic" according to everyone else - regardless of the fact I would eat burgers, pizza, bacon rolls etc from the canteen at break times God I miss early 2000's school food before the health police jumped on it

I weighed under 7 st when I left school at 18 despite eating the traditional 1970s Scottish teenage diet of chips and Mars Bars. When I was pregnant at 30 I was under 8st. It was very annoying to be told by interfering busy bodies that I was too thin. It is possible to stay very thin and eat normally.

Those girls are not anorexic.

They are very slim but neither do they look anorexic, on the other hand they don't look particularly toned though so I don't think it's a particularly healthy look. Presumably they are photoshopped to look even more skinny than they are in real life.

Why photoshopped? Why can't they just be that thin?

Because every image we see these days is photoshopped, hell I photoshop out snot from photos of my kids, why should I suppose Zara don't use professional photographers who are skilled at creating the image their client wants.

Have a look at

You can be ridiculously slim as an active healthy teenager with a good metabolism. You can be anorexic and a normal weight. I used to know a couple of teenage girls with anorexia. They were at that point a normal healthy weight. They had worked incredibly hard despite their eating disorders to reach and maintain that weight but still had anorexia - the distorted body image, self hatred, huge anxiety regarding food and eating and everything else that goes along with anorexia.

I do think that, particularly when modelling clothes for teenagers, the models shouldn't all be really skinny, there should be a range of shapes and sizes. A lot of healthy teenagers really are that thin though and shouldn't be made to feel bad for their body shape, just as those with hips and boobs shouldn't.

I don't like 'anorexic' as a description of appearance though.

I'm fully with worra etc. I'm in my early 30's and the same build. If anything I suspect thinner, because I have a lot of lean muscle making me that size, without that I'd be a lot smaller. And they're a hell of a lot bigger than 12yr old dd, who having always been tall, slight and thin, is currently going through the coltish stage on top of that.

Contrary to popular myth, we don't both share an eating disorder, resemble boys, or look this way because we see it in the media, nor as an adult woman do I look prepubescent or less of a woman.

It might be unhealthy for some women and girls, but wtf gives anyone the right to body shame other shapes to boost their own or their daughters self esteem?

It would be better if other healthy body types were used too. But a teen girl with a slim hour glass shape is hardly going to buy into the idea her curves are lovely when the word 'curvy' is so commonly used to describe being overweight, rather than build.

It might be unhealthy for some women and girls, but wtf gives anyone the right to body shame other shapes to boost their own or their daughters self esteem?

Part of this is simply denial that people are generally fatter than they used to be. When my weight hovered around 7st in the 70s and 80s I bought standard size 8 or 10 clothes. Size 6 didn't exist in the UK. I now buy size 14 and no way is that equivalent to a 1970s size 14.

I really notice this if I'm buying vintage/2nd hand clothes. I love 1950s full skirted dresses but a genuine 1950s size 10 is tiny compared to a 2016 size 10.

My 16 yo dd is that slim, honestly she's tiny and the amount of food she puts away is astonishing! :o

It's really not possible to tell from a photo whether or not these models have eating disorders. Maybe they don't. But it's naive to think they couldn't possibly, or to say that they must be fine as their skin is nice or whatever.

About reverse retouching.

Quote: "They had 22-inch waists (those were never made bigger), but they also had breasts and great skin. They had teeny tiny ankles and thin thighs, but they still had luscious hair and full cheeks.
Thanks to retouching, our readers... never saw the horrible, hungry downside of skinny. That these underweight girls didn’t look glamorous in the flesh. Their skeletal bodies, dull, thinning hair, spots and dark circles under their eyes were magicked away by technology, leaving only the allure of coltish limbs and Bambi eyes."

Why when it comes to skinny women is it assumed the unhealthy represent the majority? Some models might be anorexic and need loads of airbrushing to look good. Doesn't mean they all do. Some fat people are just greedy and lazy, but nobody thinks that's representative of all fat people. So why is the same not true of skinny stereotyping? But yeah, my airbrushing technology is so great my 'skeletal' dd even looks like she has healthy skin and hair in the flesh.

Fwiw anorexia is a mental illness, not a clothes size or linked to having a small frame.

They honestly don't look that bad. I remember a lot of teenage girls having that body shape when I was growing up. I think you just don't see it as much because puberty starts earlier these days.

Totally normal shape for teenagers.

LOL at the idea the models are unhappy-looking because they're hungry(!) - and not because that's the expression they've been told to adopt by the company/director/stylist.

The hard fact to swallow is that clothes look their best on a tall slim, body shape. Or a slim but curvy shape (underwear/swim wear).

It would be great to see more body shapes out there, but clothes manufacturers are in the business of selling clothes, and they want their clothes to look as appealing as they possibly can.

I wonder where the OP has gone...

There is nothing 'unfortunate' about that girl's hair

The girls are thin. I dont agree they look anorexic. I was naturally this thin and curveless until i had my son. I would personally rather see a far bigger variety of body shapes/sizes/ethnicities/configurations/emotions in fashion magazines. There are people other than miserable looking tall thin white able bodied girls who wear clothes.

Why photoshopped? Why can't they just be that thin

They can be 'just thin'. The relevant question is why functionally ALL models must be this 'just thin'. Models, body wise, represent less than 1% of the population in terms of size and height. Even plus models are in that category only because their height allows them to wear the size they do and not appear fat.

I was shocked by the images of the models whilst shopping on their website. I've left a message on their website to that effect. They look tired and more importantly malnourished; they are extremely thin, bones protruding, tired faces and generally look unwell.

Hopefully if my fourteen year old sees these images it will make her realise that's exactly what she doesn't want to look like.

You cannot look anorexic. Anorexic is not a body shape or size. It’s a mental illness with set behaviours. Using weight/shape as a diagnostic tool is long out of favour as it misses vast swathes of women and girls suffering from anorexia.

Looking anorexic is a fucking obnoxious thing to say.

Oh this sort of thing annoys me. Yes, they’re thin. Lots of teenagers are, mine is, lots of adult females are. The issue is more about using varied body shapes, to reflect society. That would be a good point to raise. This is just another critiquing of female bodies and I think it’s pretty sad grown women don’t know better. Would it be ok to start a post about plus size models being too big? No. So please don’t pick on thin people. The reality is, we are so used to seeing overweight bodies that we think thin is bad. It isn’t.

Zombie thread?
teenage girls struggling with puberty and their bodies becoming more curvy, with hips

This never happened to me!
I had "boyish" hips up until about 30, never developed boobs, and was always thin, and certainly not anorexic.
These models look normal, people's views of what normal is are just skewed now.

I didn’t even see the date!

Errr, OP, you're rather wrong and rather unpleasant about these women's bodies.

The models aren't anorexic. They have perfectly normal bodies, probably at the lower end of the healthy range.

Sorry but I have to agree, They all look anorexic and depressed and they clearly wear no bras, At least one the adult section at least. I love Zara but going on there website makes me feel depressed and physically sick and I can see why you would be upset about children seeing this as most do copy and see things and feel they should be like this. Btw I have a 13 year old and I’m a model, Been one for many years but I’m nowhere near this skinny. It just looks unnatural

Wtf is going on with all these zombie threads?