The Mail Online has reported that Essentials magazine will ban models, celebrities and air-brushing from its covers and use ‘real women’ instead.

“The upmarket monthly publication, has pledged to only use real women as cover stars. Many feel the constant barrage of re-touched famous faces and size zero models in magazines is damaging and distorting women’s body image and fuelling the rise of eating disorders.”

This is a UK first, American and Australian glossies have already pledged the change or featured ‘real’ women but the UK has been reluctant to take on board the effects images have on men and women. Read more on the story here.

Is this a step in the right direction? Will this really help make a difference to the rest of the fashion industry or do we need to be targeting a younger audience too? If you believe unrealistic imagery should be abolished in favour for body and beauty diversity then please sign the Real Bodies Unite petition.

September is America’s National Childhood Obesity Awareness month. Fresh Choice Restaurants and NourishInteractive.com have teamed up to provide children with important tools for healthy eating.

Fresh Choice Restaurants (www.freshchoice.com) and NourishInteractive.com (www.nourishinteractive.com) have teamed up to support the first ever National Childhood Obesity Awareness month. Children in the U.S. are becoming overweight or obese at an alarming pace. Since the 1970s the rate of obesity in children ages six to eleven has increased by four hundred percent!

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I was reading a website today that showcases the good that is happening in the world and this story really inspired me, so I thought I would share it with you all. You must read this, I hope it makes a difference.

For nearly 100 years, the Girl Scouts organization has been helping build girls of courage, confidence, character and community-mindedness. Now they want the girls to feel good about their bodies, too.

In a bold move, the Girl Scouts organization has gotten four gorgeous Wihelmina Curve plus-size models to contribute to a campaign promoting a healthy body image for girls. Available for viewing on the Girl Scouts website and on YouTube, the individual clips feature Anansa Sims, Leona Palmer, Julie Henderson and Lizzie Miller, who share their views about body acceptance.

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The BBC has reported today that Marks and Spencer has started to sell over-sized school uniforms for overweight children as young as four in their on-line store. Please read the story below and leave your comments on this controversial matter.

Its new Plus schoolwear range includes clothes for pre-school children with waistlines of up to 23ins, a size usually worn by eight-year-olds.

Campaigners said it was simply commercial recognition of the fact obesity was a growing problem among younger pupils.

Marks and Spencer said the trial range followed demand from parents. The range, which started being sold online last week, caters for ages three to 16, with trouser and skirt sizes going up to a 41-inch.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: “This is the actual commercial recognition of what we have known for some time – that obesity in pre-schoolers is building up. Now 27% of entrants to primary schools are overweight or obese.”

Mr Fry said there needed to be a collective effort to curb obesity. ”Parents should not fail in their responsibility – it is they that put food in their children’s mouths, send their children out to play.

“But at a government level, they have consistently ducked out of regulating the food industry. If you allow the food industry to self regulate – and the government sanctions the fact that they are not going to regulate – then the food industry will just carry on making the food it is making.”

A spokesman for Marks and Spencer said: “It is a small online trial running in response to customer demand. Marks and Spencer is the leading schoolwear retailer and we want to make sure our schoolwear range is accessible for children of all shapes and sizes.”

More than one in five children in England start their school life overweight or obese, figures from the NHS Information Centre released last December show.

By the end of primary school the rate rises to nearly one in three, the government’s child measurement programme found.

The schools data showed more boys than girls were overweight in both reception and year six. Some 24% of boys aged four to five were overweight or obese, while 21.5% of girls were.

In the 10 to 11-year-old age group, 34.5% of boys and 30.7% of girls weighed too much.

View source

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are teaming up with the White House, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Ad Council and first lady Michelle Obama to support “Let’s Move!” — a campaign started by the first lady with the goal of solving the challenge of childhood obesity so America’s youngest children will reach adulthood at a healthy weight.

The first lady announced the new relationship at Camden Yards prior to a baseball skills clinic conducted by members of the Orioles and Rays for a group of young people participating in local Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America programs. In addition, the first lady spoke to the young people about making healthy choices as they relate to nutrition and physical fitness.

“The truth is, guys, you are supposed to be getting at least 60 minutes of active play every single day,” Obama told the participants. “That’s what has led athletes to be the great players they have today. Because they never stop moving. That’s what you guys need to do and that’s why we’re here.

“We’ve got to get you guys focused and moving. … When these players were kids they found a sport that they loved. They practiced and practiced and practiced until they were better at it than anybody else. We want you guys to do the same thing.”

To learn more, visit source.

Three charities have collaborated together to start battling the issue of our health, see below the article they have written for the launch of this campaign, the full length informative video and go to their website to find out more about it.

A new survey today reveals that 97 per cent of people in Britain are unaware that their beer bellies and muffin tops are generating higher levels of oestrogen and excess chemicals in their stomachs, putting them at risk of cancer, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

But worryingly, nearly three quarters (71 per cent) of people admit to carrying excess weight around their middle, and more than half (57 per cent of women and 55 per cent of men) overestimate the waist measurement at which they become at risk.

The results of the survey, which questioned 2,085 adults in Great Britain, were released as Diabetes UK, Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) launched their new ‘Active Fat’ campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying extra weight around your middle.

The charities are urging people to measure their waistlines and make positive changes to their lifestyles if they are at risk.

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Our campaign and petition to get body diversity into the fashion industry, Real Bodies Unite, has now got its own website at www.realbodiesunite.com.

Real Bodies Unite has started to grow and we have found many more individuals and organisations just like us around the world hoping to make a change with their own initiative, so we wanted to showcase not only our work but those around us to pass the message on.

The new website has a blog with the latest news and information on body and beauty diversity from around the world, it lists those who have shown their support of our campaign and some of the feedback from signatories.

Let us know what you think and don’t forget to sign the petition and pass the message on.

Advertising firms will have to issue a notice on ads with digitally touched-up models, if the Knesset approves a compromise solution presented yesterday to the cabinet on the ‘Photoshop Law’.

The coalition decided yesterday to back a bill that bans showing photos of underweight models in advertisements. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided to support the bill, though with substantive changes.

Originally the bill had called for a ban to the hiring of underweight models, as well as a ban on the use of computer programs by advertising agencies, which would alter the dimensions of models.
The compromise legislation allows advertising agencies to use photo altering software, which make possible the changing of dimensions of models in photos, however the agencies will have to issue a notice on each of their advertisements that alterations were made. The law is named for the software program Adobe Photoshop.

The aim of the bill, proposed by MK Rachel Adatto (Kadima ), and Danny Danon (Likud ), is to cut down on eating disorders among youth.

“The prevalence of eating disorders, including anorexia, is on the rise in Israeli society in recent years, especially among teenage girls,” the MKs wrote. “Research proves that one of the reasons for eating disorder among young women is the influence of the media and advertising which presents especially skinny women as standards to emulate, and by this affect youths’ standards. The fashion industry and especially the advertising industry have created a distorted image of the ideal woman when many of the models appearing in advertisements are in a state of undernourishment. Such an image is used an a model for emulation mostly by young girls who are trying to lose excessive amounts of weight.”

Read more and view source here.

Inspired by a vision and a dream, teen model and business woman Olivia Mignone created Shortstack to prove that anyone could achieve their goals without limitations. After 4 years of success, she is now challenging the fashion and modeling industry to step up and be more inclusive with girls who do not meet the industry standards, starting with an invite to come to the 4th Annual Shortstack Charity Fashion Show – a professional and classy event on 5th Avenue in the heart of Manhattan on June 18th.

For many young ladies, the allure of being a model comes with the idea they will have a glamorous life of traveling the world, wearing designer clothing, meeting thousands of people and having your face plastered on billboards and magazines – sounds exciting, right? Most of the world has probably thought about this career choice at least once in their life, but for many, like 19 year old Shortstack Program Director Olivia Mignone, it becomes a passion. Unfortunately, Olivia learned years ago that there was a gritty truth behind this glamorous life and that her 5’ 1” limitation was going to exclude her from this industry. Thankfully, for many young girls who have followed in her footsteps, Olivia would not accept this hurdle and set out to change the standards.

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I read this on The Frisky today and really wanted to share with you the changing opinions within the model and fashion industry. I really want to make a change here in the UK to the models we see in the fashion industry – they should be representative of all bodies, no matter what shape or size. So if you agree, please sign our petition. In the meantime, take a look at the following interview with Lizzie Miller.

Last September, Glamour magazine printed a small photo of model Lizzie Miller looking happy in next to nothing. Tons of readers wrote into the magazine, saying they loved seeing such a realistic-looking woman pictured in the pages of the glossy. Glamour listened, and other magazines have followed suit, mixing things up by hiring plus-size models with fantastic yet attainable figures. Lizzie Miller played a big role in this shift by showing off her body, and she continues to be in demand (one of her gigs is modeling for plus-size retailer Lane Bryant). Keep reading to see what she had to say about staying confident in herself despite working in the image-conscious modeling industry.

Change does not come from complacency. Change comes from people being fed up with the norm. What we have to look at is how many girls and young women are dying and struggling with anorexia or bulimia … My main goal is that somewhere on this planet, a young girl with thicker thighs and a thicker butt is looking at a picture of me in a magazine and feeling a little bit better about herself.

Your photo in Glamour last fall resulted in the magazine featuring more plus-size models, and other magazine have started to include more varied models, too. What does it feel like to be a part of this revolution?

It feels amazing! It’s great to have a voice and even better that people want to listen now. I think it’s been a long time coming, and I’m so happy that it’s going on and I hope it keeps getting better and better!
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