How the Modeling Industry Treats Teen Bodies Like Kids (And it HAS to stop)

Here

!!TW: A lot of talk about eating disorders, adultifycation of young girls, p3d0ph!l!a, and general grossness!!

This isn't a personal vent, it's a warning.

So, let me start off by saying that I'm well aware how many people are already talk about all the disgusting things the model industry does to set unhealthy beauty standards and how we're already beginning to recognize how much of a problem it is, but I don't see anyone going into detail about how specifically girls going through puberty can really be affected by the unhealthy stigma around food. 

No, this isn't just about ''modeling industry says not eating enough and being skinny is what's acceptable'', but I want to talk about the fact that, when you go through puberty, regardless of gender, your body grows and changes a lot very quickly, it develops many new systems and hormones it didn't have when you were young, and grows much bigger, and because of this, people going through puberty need more rest and more food to support all of this.

Firstly, parents often fail to recognize this truth and expect MORE out of their offspring because they are becoming more mature, and while this is true and there should indeed be more that they can handle now, that doesn't outweigh the fact that this is still a very developmental time and it still requires a lot of getting used to. Not having parental figures who know enough, or are willing to know enough, to be supportive during this time can be incredibly damaging to an adolescent, beyond repair sometimes. 

This applies to other adults whose job it is to guide children around these ages, such as teachers, counselors, doctors, etc. but less. Doctors, however, literally have to understand this, although I don't believe they or anyone else talks about this enough, which brings me back to the model industry and why their standards on eating are worse than most people realize. 

See, the amount of food you need to eat as an adolescent to even have a chance at becoming as Barbie-like as these (fake) models is the same amount (or even smaller) that small children need to eat just to keep going. The amount of food you need just won't stay the same your whole life, it doesn't work that way and it never will. 

If you actually try to go along with this expectation that needing to eat more when you start to grow more is something to be ashamed of, it shouldn't be a surprise that your physical, mental, and emotional health will decrease, and no, it is not worth it to live up to a standard set by rich companies who don't care what they're doing. 

Treating your body like it's lower maintenance than it is will not solve anything, and by trying to keep your older self restricted to the amount of fuel you needed when you were young and had less to fuel, in fact, is probably sounding more and more ridiculous the more I explain it in these terms. 

If you buy a larger car than the one you currently drive, and try to use the same amount of fuel you used on the small car, eventually it will run out of gas, and then you can't expect it to work. It's just the laws of physics. Now I'm sure, on some level, almost all of the impressionable girls who fall prey to these toxic beauty standards do understand this, but it's probably not fully processed like this in their minds.