Coco Rocha's VIew:

Coco Rocha has been a huge inspiration to me in previous years. Even if you don't recognize her name, you will know her by her face. She has been featured time and time again on many of the top fashion outlets around the world, including Vogue in twelve different country's and more editorial and runway work than I could ever get my head around. I will never forget the day when I was sitting in the agency on the black leather couches, perusing magazines and she strode over and sat down next to me. I didn't have the balls to say I word to her, but sat frozen, breathing extraordinarily quietly. I guess if there had been something to talk about she would have said something to me, but as it was, we sat in silence until she had to go chat to one of the agents. I was recently sent a link to her blog, and I thought I would highlight some of her words;


"Surely, we all see how morally wrong it is for an adult to convince an already thin 15 year old that she is actually too fat. It is unforgivable that an adult should demand that the girl unnaturally lose the weight vital to keep her body functioning properly. How can any person justify an aesthetic that reduces a woman or child to an emaciated skeleton? Is it art? Surely fashion's aesthetic should enhance and beautify the human form, not destroy it.

As a grown woman I can make decisions for myself. I can decide that I won't allow myself to be degraded at a casting - marching in my underwear with a group of young girls, poked, prodded and examined like cattle. I'm able to walk away from that treatment because I am established as a model and I'm an adult... but what about the young, struggling and aspiring models?

Of my generation of models I'm exactly where I need to be in my career and I'm grateful to use my position to actively speak out against this with the support of the CFDA and Vogue. My sincere hope is that through our efforts young models will one day be spared the humiliation, the risky weight loss, the depression that comes along with anorexia and the misery of abandonment by an industry ashamed to see them turn into actual women.

This issue of model's weight is, and always has been of concern to me. There are certain moral decisions which seem like no brainers to us. For example, not employing children in sweatshops, and not increasing the addictiveness of cigarettes. When designers, stylists or agents push children to take measures that lead to anorexia or other health problems in order to remain in the business, they are asking the public to ignore their moral conscience in favor of the art."

- COCO ROCHA



Sometimes, I feel sick after eating. I feel guilty. I feel angry. I feel sad. I feel worthless. I feel like a failure.
I watch my friends reach new heights, I watch them travel the world. I see their pictures, I hear their names.
Will I ever be proud of myself again?