OUTLiNE

THESiS: Since there is proof that many models are hurting themselves more than helping the fashion world, the modeling agencies need to accept the more natural look and not make the deathly skinny mainstream.

I. Try eating only a piece of lettuce, every four hours, for six months.

II. Too thin is not in because when models, women, are hurting themselves enough to send themselves to hospitals just to meet the expectations of others this is when being thin has gone to far. A.Friends were grieved, but not entirely surprised, to learn that on Nov. 14 Reston, 21, had died from multiple organ failure caused by anorexia. Following the August death of an Uruguayan **//model//** from heart failure during a fashion show, Reston's passing adds fuel to the outrage over **//too//**-**//thin//** models. "I understand that in the industry there is pressure to be skinny," says Gisele Bündchen, the Brazilian supermodel, who had never met Reston. "But [this] is what happens when people take things to extremes." 1.Many tweens at the summit seemed to get the message. A 12-year-old said a stick-thin **//model//** made her "feel sick" because the **//model//** looked "un-normal." 2. "I was holding myself not to cry." Once luminous, Reston had become a virtual skeleton. "The skin was gray. The eyes were sad and without light," recalls Estela Saenz, owner of a Mexican modeling agency, who last saw Reston at that time. Still, the ambitious **//model//** continued to work, posing for a fashion Web site as late as Oct. 18. The next day she canceled a bridal magazine booking to enter a Säo Paulo hospital, carrying only 88 lbs. on her 5'7" frame." B.Being healthy is not being skinny always. It can be eating right and just becoming thinner and to a healthier weight. 1.For all of the born-again concern about the health of its models, the fashion industry still promotes skinny. Thin is still in and gaunt is still good. In the last year alone, four young models died of anorexia. 2.The messages from the fashion industry, the media, Hollywood and society in general are enough to brainwash young girls into thinking they’ve got to lose weight—that there is some ideal weight out there just waiting for them to under-eat their way to. And then, of course, they will be happy. And maybe even become models. III. Some agencies and industries are now making new laws to where you have to weigh a minimum of the set weight. If you do not weigh enough you can not model for the company. A. 1.“If they don’t go along with [the new rules] the next step is to seek legislation, just like with tobacco,” said Carmen Gonzales of Spain’s Anorexia and Bulimia Association. But this column didn’t start in Madrid; it began in Montreal, and that’s where it’s going to end. 2.Yves Jean Lacasse, a Montreal designer, said recently: “The majority of designers in Montreal or Toronto take natural bodies.When I say natural, I mean sizes 6, 7, 8, not 2, 3, 4.” Give that man a lettuce leaf. Every four hours. For six months.