You have to be Bones to be Beautiful

I usually like to try to keep this journal upbeat and positive, but right now I'm fuming to the boiling point and feel like I will explode in fury.

The modeling industry is a piece of crap. A piece of fucking crap. They want emaciated women, many of which have to starve themselves and learn to cope with eating disorders and the constant pressure of staying thin and looking 'perfect'.

Sure, there are some women that look like that naturally and that's fine. I'm not saying that one body type is superior or inferior to another. What I'm saying is that this industry is promoting mental and physical illness onto many girls, even those that aren't models at all.

They love to hire 12-14 year old models who are really tall and thin (and haven't exactly blossomed into womanhood yet). These girls have no boobs and no hips, and that's the point. But, when older models want to enter the trade, at the ripe old age of seventeen or eighteen, they are expected to have a child's body type, which doesn't make sense when they aren't children anymore!!!

A girl who's close to me was told to lose two more inches on her hips. She's already underweight and still not 'perfect'. She's already got an eating disorder, so this type of criticism just adds more fuel to the fire.

Right now I just feel so much hatred for the modeling industry, and the media that warps little girls brains into thinking they have to be bones to be beautiful. You know what? You are beautiful for just being alive! You are beautiful for the good actions you take in life. You are beautiful at ANY size. I want women to be empowered and to lose the self-loathing. I want to feel empowered and lose my own self-loathing.

I don't know how to solve this problem with the media and the modeling industry, and the unrealistic expectations it has. I'm just lucky that I'm not as effected by this stuff as my dear friend is. I'm just lucky that I can see more self worth in myself than what my reflection shows in the mirror. If there was anyway I could get her and others to see that in themselves... then I think we'd have a solution.

My own contribution to a solution will be to portray women of different body types in my art. Some will be thin, or muscular, or plump. And each one of them will be beautiful. I will celebrate cellulite and tiger stripes, curves and flat planes, and show how variety truly is the spice of life.

We are people who deserve to be treated as people, not objects to be molded to the desires of others.