Currently Listening to:
"The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars
Companies using unrealistically thin bodies and overly-shopped models to advertise their products is nothing new, neither are the body issues that have been plaguing us for decades. Ever since the world saw the rise of uber skinny supermodel
Twiggy back in the 1960s, healthy and full figures have been forced from the spotlight, never to be celebrated again. In fact, many people today are often ridiculed or mocked for having braces or pimples or cellulite or even a
muffin top, and I know that many of you will agree that there is an overwhelming absence of variety, options, and positive body image re-enforcement for girls, women (and even men) everywhere! Luckily,
Natural Model Management is here to change that!
(Natural Model & Co-Owner Katie)
Created in part by Plus size model, Katie Halchishick,
Natural Model Management is a new agency here to meet the increasingly high demand for healthy, natural figures in the fashion industry. They are an agency created by models for models and are dedicated to upholding a high respect level between themselves, models, and clients.
Natural values models and their
natural build and body size and encourage models to find a healthy balance in life and in their bodies. Together, they have teamed up with designer
Jessica Svoboda to create
Healthy is the New Skinny, a campaign to help revolutionize the way we think and feel about our bodies!
(Natural Model Emilee)
What is
Healthy is the New Skinny?
This is not about a size. It’s about a movement.
Healthy is the New Skinny is about revolutionizing how we think about, talk about, live in and love our bodies. It’s about putting happiness and vibrant good health first and foremost. Generations of young women have assessed their own worth by how far they are from the ideal of unrealistic thinness.
Healthy is the New Skinny believes in natural beauty, the kind that can’t be defined by a hip measurement, but is defined by fitness and fun.
(Natural Model Jennifer)
“You should love your body the way it is.” You’ve heard that message a million times, seen it a million places. But too often, that message is contradicted by the lifestyle and values of the messenger. That conflict between words and actions shows up in the disconnect between the fashion editorials and the articles in many magazines. It shows up in our friendships, where we’re on the receiving end of reassuring messages about self-love from people who clearly don’t love themselves. We’re not stupid – we can tell when someone isn’t practicing what they preach.
(Natural Model Jodi)
The size standards in fashion today are extremely unrealistic, even harmful. They give all of us a distorted image of true beauty, depriving all of us of a chance to see just how good healthy can look.
Healthy is the New Skinny wants to show you a new vision of authentic beauty — and we want to show you in a big way.
(Natural Model Kit)
The
Healthy is the New Skinny community invites you to join us. You’ll see how our models live out their commitment to natural, healthy, beauty. You’ll be able to interact with our models and our expert advisers, and you’ll be able to share your own story and read those of others. We’re here to support you, inspire you – and just as importantly, be inspired
by you.
(Natural Model Merissa)
Healthy is the New Skinny is about fun, it’s about fashion, it’s about changing the world one girl, one woman, one body at a time. Join us...
Lets face it, each body will always differ from another. We're not all meant to be a size 2 and some of us are at our healthiest at a size 12. Some people who pride themselves on eating right and staying in shape are still a size 14! Why? Because that was the shape intended for them.
I'm naturally thick in the thighs and I have wide upper body (a swimmer's back). That isn't a weight issue, that is how I'm naturally shaped and I refuse to change who I am to fit another person's standard of beauty. At this point it, shouldn't even be about being skinny or reaching one "ideal" type of beauty, it should be about being
healthy and being
happy with
who you are;
and that's exactly what
Healthy is the New Skinny is all about.
Since it's creation,
Healthy is the New Skinny is already making an impact with it's "Perfectly UnPerfect" Project (P.U.P.), which is an outreach program that presents exciting, powerful multi-media workshops designed to transform how young people think and feel about not only their bodies, but others' as well. The P.U.P. presentations are led by professional models as well as an experienced facilitator that can be tailored to high school, junior high, or college-age audiences. Pulling together and utilitizing their backgrounds in modeling and fashion as well as academia, they share their experiences and struggles for self-acceptance and their message for everyone: we are
all perfectly unperfect. (If you would like the P.U.P. Team to visit your school, you can check out their
Events page and
Contact them to set up a presentation!)
All too often does the fashion industry jump on the "plus" or "healthy" or "curvy" band wagon for publicity, usually only after a
dangerously thin model perishes as a result of her under-weight. Then just as quickly as it was here, the "movement" fades out within weeks. The industry is suddenly all aboom with
healthy, healthy, healthy and then without warning, you never hear about it again and the industry reverts back to its old self. Personally, I am
so glad that someone is finally taking a
genuine step toward positive, healthy body image, because we as a society need to accept the idea of just being the healthiest, best versions of us that we can be and promote a
healthy lifestyle rather than harmful, unrealistic expectations of weight and figure.
Afterall, beauty isn't one-size fits all!
xoxo coco
* Information and photos are property of Natural Model Management and Healthy is the New Skinny. Thank you to Katie H. for permission to use them! The models pictured are between size 6 and 16 and are sporting the official Healthy is the New Skinny tee-shirt, available for purchase on the official HITNS Facebook page.
