Lifestyle

Model Scouts Are Taking It Way Too Far

by Ally Batista

We’re all aware of the one major issue when it comes to the fashion industry: the models. It’s as if there’s a giant elephant in the room every time a model walks down the runway. We all know they’re starving themselves, yet no one does anything about it.

No matter how many people speak out on the issue, modeling scouts and modeling execs in the industry do nothing about it. Now, the issue has hit the lowest low point you could possibly conceive: model scouts in Stockholm have reportedly taken to scouting for their next models outside of the country’s largest eating disorder clinic.

The Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders brought this issue to light in Stockholm’s local Metro newspaper, where they lobbed complaints at scouts handing off business cards to patients as young as 14.

Anna-Maria af Sandberg, chief doctor at the 1,700 bed clinic was quoted in saying:

“We think this is repugnant. People have stood outside our clinic and tried to pick up our girls because they know they are very thin. It sends the wrong signals when the girls are being treated for eating disorders.”

Um, ya think? The center for eating disorders even went so far as to recall one incident where a patient in a wheelchair was approached by a top agent, and another involving a 14-year old girl whose mother and care coordinator had to explain to the defensive recruiter that she was too ill to model.

This news comes just as Vogue has began an initiative to take steps in the direction of models rights, but it’s still the most outrageous concept. I’m currently in the midst of reading The Vogue Factor, and the accounts of the former Vogue Australia editor concerning the health of former models is seriously disturbing.

How does one even properly end an article such as this one?

Ally Batista | Elite.

Twitter: @allybatista

Photo Credit: Getty Images