Petra Nemcova: My Struggle to Be Thin

Petra Nemcova: My Struggle to Be Thin

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 08:05AM EST




Petra Nemcova Photo by: Rukhsana Hamid / PA EMPICS / ABACA

Model Petra Nemcova knows what it's like to struggle to be a size zero in order to stay on the runway – and says she went on brutal diets and even took laxatives to stay thin.

"I went through so many diets in my life. I've been very, very skinny. I've been a size zero but I'm naturally more curvy," she tells PEOPLE. "I ate just vegetables, carrots, tomatoes. I went from a just-protein diet to just eating apples to eating no carbs. I took laxatives. I went through all of it just to be able to model."

Nemcova's comments come in the wake of a decision earlier this month by Madrid Fashion Week officials, who set off an international catfight by announcing that models participating in Fashion Week shows there had to meet a weight standard: Their body-mass index needed to be at least 18 – or 122 lbs. for someone 5'9".

Some fashion-world movers and shakers share their take on the new rules with PEOPLE:

• Designer Donatella Versace: "The house of Versace has always used women as opposed to girls in our fashion shows and ad campaigns. I have always preferred to work with models that have feminine curves over too thin models."

• Stylist Rachel Zoe: "I don't think they'll ever get banned. I think that as an industry we should promote healthiness. I think that there's a small grey area between being too skinny and sick versus being a thin person. I think if everyone looks to Kate Moss, I mean, she looks great, she's not too thin, she looks healthy."

• Designer Antonio Pernas: "I had to change the whole lot (of models in my show) in one day! (But) this industry sets an example to young women, so I'm not against the measures."

• Model Kimberly Stewart: Should the Madrid ban be adopted worldwide? "I think, yeah, I think it should. (The super-thin image) is not good for underage girls, I agree. In New York and Los Angeles it's the same."

• Designer Ben de Lisi: "I chose all my models because they are healthy and beautiful, and whether they are skinny or curvaceous, as long as they are healthy, they're on my catwalk. If they look beautiful and they look healthy and they're naturally thin, then they will go on my catwalk. Full stop."

• Actress Thandie Newton "Some women are just naturally very slim. I don't think that fashion necessarily promotes a very skinny look anymore. There are a lot of women in the public eye – and actors have a lot to do with that – who have a more curvy physique, (such as) Scarlett Johansson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who are hugely admired by audiences. If anything, I think there's a wider range of body types now for fashion."


http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1537355,00.html

 

I think it's great that so many models/actresses/singers/etc. are finally sharing their stories about dieting, eating disorders, abusing laxatives/diuretics/diet pills, etc.

The only problem I see is that most of these stars are "older" women. In the meantime, the younger girls are still doing it (Mary Kate and Ashley, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, etc.). Now, younger girls see these articles and interviews about the ones that ARE speaking out against it, and I can see how it would be easy for them to think, "Yeah, you don't care any more because you're getting old." while their teenage role-models are still starving, purging and abusing medications to 'stay thin'.

I stillt hink it's great, I mean, especially with this whole "40 is the new 20" and the obvious rise in eating disorders among 30+ year old women... I just wish the younger girls in the media would give other "real" girls their age someone to look up to.
(And I know that a few are, but as long as a few aren't, and they're generally the ones that are HUGE in the magazines, news and television, that's what younger girls are going to look up to.)

 

The article is interesting. You can look at it two ways. First, the model is in a profession where you have to stay thin to be employed. Your job is to be a coat hanger for the latest fashion. That's the reality of it. She could quit, eat and lose the income if she wanted. She's free to do so.

Second, while people are raving about the benefits of making sure overly thin people aren't showcased and put us as role models, I don't hear anyone quoting the statistic that obesity in 12-19yr olds is up from 4-6% in the 70's to 15% or so now. It would do a world of good for some of these kids to look to thinner role models and people who are in shape in order to persuade them to stop eating garbage and get outside and run or something.

Obesity Stat Link: http://www.obesity.org/subs/fastfacts/obesity_youth.shtml


Weight is a very simple thing. It's calories in vs. calories out. The fact is that people are too lazy to eat properly, loading up on Starbucks and other garbage instead of whole grains and cooking all your food at home, yourself. What is terrible about the Olsen's of the world are that they are thin without being healthy. They are overly thin and have no muscle.