Model Launches Petition To Protect Girls Against Pressure To Be ‘Dangerously Skinny’

A 23-year-old model is hoping to bring real change to the fashion industry, after she claims that a major London agency told her to slim down and become dangerously thin.

Now, Rosalie Nelson has launched a petition calling for a new law which would protect women from this sort of industry pressure.

The size 8 Aussie revealed that when she walked into the agency last year she was informed that ‘she ticked all the boxes, except one’ – her weight.

Rosalie’s petition, which has already gained nearly 60,000 signatures on Change.org, states:

When I walked into one of the UK’s biggest model agencies last year they told me I ticked all the boxes except one – I needed to lose weight. So I did. Four months later I lost nearly a stone, 2 inches off my hips. When I returned to the same agency they told me to lose more weight, they wanted me “down to the bone”.

Nelson, who lives in London, has since posed for publications including Vogue, but goes on to say that modelling is a very lonely profession and the pressure to become thin can have ‘dire consequences’, citing her own experiences on long shoots, adding: “I’ve been on shoots for up to 10 hours where no food is provided – the underlying message is always that you shouldn’t eat.”

This has long been a problem within the fashion industry and, finally, earlier this year it actually became a crime to employ models who are too thin, with a punishment of up to six years in jail.

Yet, clearly the industry problem persists.

Rosalie added:

When I look in the mirror I see someone that is healthy and comfortable in their skin. That’s because I had the guts to carve out my own path and refuse to let people pressure me into losing more and more weight. But with London Fashion Week the reminders are everywhere that we need a law to protect young girls, and boys, who are put under pressure to be dangerously thin.

International Model Management director Karsten Edwards has backed Rosalie’s campaign, telling Mail Online they support her ‘in her quest to make the runway a healthier place to be’, and we imagine many more will agree that this would be an incredibly positive move for the entire industry and those who work in it.