To what extent are you girls influenced by models?

I admit to have been influenced by them alot in the past. When i was a teenager, i thought i would be happy and beautiful just like the peppy models you see walking down the runway.

What do you consider to be a healthy weight for a model?

Whatever weight is healthy for their height, age, and body type. And I used to be influenced not by models, but by Sailor Moon. (Which is insane, I know. ><)

If I had to say, Tyra Banks, mostly. I love her stuff. x3

I've always been more influenced by what people say about models, celebrities.. or even regular people! If someone went "haha porky" to a 110 lb model I felt really bad about myself. Now I know better and recognize my value as a human being and I recognize I'm a sexy beat in my own way, I think it's pretty irresponsible of the media to say negative and mean thing about another person's body. That's not good for anyone of ANY age.

But generally, I recognize most models have to go extreme lengths I feel is not necessary for a girl like me to do in everyday life, I also recognize most models have body types that are drastically different from mine, so I really don't care about how much they weigh and stuff. I always thought a model was more about the face and attitude/posture then the actual body shape and weight. Maybe it's just me?

But I always awed Tyra Banks. I thought she was the prettiest Victoria Secret model. XD I still think she's hella pretty despite gaining weight. She could become overweight and I'd still think that girl could pull it off and make it.. *ahem* fierce. XD

I'll admit. I'm affected. BUt more by the normal ones, not the ones who look like they are dying..

It's just hard to see something deemed as perfection and be far from it. I'm short and average weight, aka, not model material haha.

Yeah..unfortunatley, I'm affected too. However, I've noticed that alot of men are influenced by the way these women look and then make it even harder for some women. (at least the one's I've come across) I was 125 lbs and a complete stranger told me that I'd be ok if I lost about 10 lbs. I know....I should just be happy with the way I am but I don't look like the women in magazines and my clothes don't look as good on me as it does them. So now I'm down to 109 and yet.....I still don't look anything like these women. I think that magazines need to bring back the "real" women. Women with curves. When I was younger, although I was pretty damn thin, I was having body issues. My brother had shown me a Playboy from 1976 to show me that real women were not sticks. They had curves and they were beautiful. This is before all the photo-shopping and tucking, pulling, stuffing surgeries. 

I'm not really affected at all. I don't think they look pretty. Seeing their pictures makes me want to go work out-- not to get skinnier, but to put some lean healthy meat on my bones. I'm all about the natural glow you get when you eat right and excersize. It looks and feels SO GOOD!

Tbh, hugely. I sometimes look at thefashionspots model street style thread and they are all so skinny i feel crap when i look in the mirror after looking at pics of the models. I feel abnormal! But i generally have a bad body image so i dunno. But i know that my ideal weight/body would be the one currently sported by models :) Because they are put on a pedastal that super-skinny look is looked as something to be aspired to. Sadly, its true.

I'm not so much influenced by models as I am by celebrities, and what people say about them.  Like, if I'm on perezhilton.com, and he makes a comment about some superslim actress looking chunky in a picture, I always think "if that's what the world views as chunky, what am I?"

I compare myself more to my friends than models...I know I will never be healthy and look like those girls, but with a bunch of friends who are all slimmer than me, it's a lot easier to feel inadequate compared to them.

I used to absolutely hate my body mostly because I was always comparing myself to the bodies of porn actresses rather than runway models. I now realize that those women usually have had so much cosmetic surgery done in order to make them look perfect that it is really impossible to look like that without getting surgery myself, which I don't want!

normal models not so much, although I do admire lingerie models( at least the ones w/o fake boobs). I also admire female fitness models, not the steroid types but the nice muscley types like from back in the days before all the steroids

I think models really affect me. When I see the skinny tall women and how beautiful some of them are I become so jealous. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I'm now thinking of trying to get to 115lbs. My favorite models are runway ones and also sometimes editorial. I think that a woman who is 5'9" or what not should weigh at the very least 125lbs for modeling. I know some of you might disagree but at least that is still fairly acceptable and would still be considered "thin" which is whats in right now.

twilitwing: I used to want to look like just Sailor Moon too. Teeny waist, long gorgeous hair, and legs that were ten feet long! An even more unrealistic example than regular models! Haha.

I admit I'm very inspired by super thin models. I don't care for the really tall ones, but the shorter ones who are practically twigs (hipsters and scene girls mostly) make me drool.

As if the body-jealousy wasn't bad enough, I'm even more envious of their faces. I'd rather have a cute face than a nice body any day.  ;_;

When I was a teen, I wanted to be curvy with the hourglass body and the big boobs, wide hips like a pre-pregnancy salma hayek...lol...I thought models were too skinny and weird looking...I'm middle eastern so I've always envied women with wide hips and tiny waists, the thought of having bones jutting out of my body mortified me. I do have jutting collar bones and prominent hip bones (and I'm not even skinny!), but I'm learning to love myself the way I am.

I guess i admire the models with big boobs, abs & curvy hips. They're are not many of these types of models. I guess i like the ones that are swimsuit & lingerie. Like the sports illustrated & playboy models. Victorias secret has some winners too but i noticed lately they have been publishing a lot more skinny skinny girls, whats the deal?

I think this is a good topic.

Honestly, I used to think that runway models were so pretty and lucky, but then during my cross country season, I wasn't eating enough calories because I all of a sudden was eating healthier, and dropped about 20 lbs from my 5'8" frame and got down to like 105. Finally one day, I looked in the mirror and was like 'Damn, I look hideous'. So I put on 10 pounds, and look a whole lot better.

I now realize those runway models are discusting and could drop dead any minute. The only model now that I think is gorgeous is Tyra Banks, definetly.

I have to admit that I am also influenced by the models...but not the skinny scary hideous ones...omg. Some are like WALKING SKELETONS! Nothing attractive about them at all. However, some supermodels have AMAZING bodies...especially the victoria's secret models!! They are SLIM and LEAN and FIT but NOT SKINNY... there is a difference there~ I love Miranda Kerr~  :) and of course Tyra Banks! Haha

At first my ED was triggered by emotional problems I was having since 2 years ago. Then I started to crave looking like a model. Although I've lost significant weight I still don't feel thin enough. Sad, I know.

I'm really influenced by models, but I really dislike the ones that a lot of people seem to like.  The ones with boobs and asses "curves."   I used to love them the most and wanted to be like that, but I don't even have as much curviness at BMI 22 as they do at 19 or whatever they are.  So for me... that kind of beauty is completely unrealistic.  Maybe i'm just biased, but I think that for most people those sorts of models are even more unrealistic than the super-skinnies.  Honestly, they have a lot of muscle and like 5 percent body fat on it... that's even harder to achieve than "skeletal."  And if I got as slim as them I'd need implants.  Sigh.

Original Post by tealparadise:

I'm really influenced by models, but I really dislike the ones that a lot of people seem to like.  The ones with boobs and asses "curves."   I used to love them the most and wanted to be like that, but I don't even have as much curviness at BMI 22 as they do at 19 or whatever they are.  So for me... that kind of beauty is completely unrealistic.  Maybe i'm just biased, but I think that for most people those sorts of models are even more unrealistic than the super-skinnies.  Honestly, they have a lot of muscle and like 5 percent body fat on it... that's even harder to achieve than "skeletal."  And if I got as slim as them I'd need implants.  Sigh.

 I don't really like skinny models with boobs and asses either...you're right about their bodies being even more unrealistic than the typical catwalk skinnies. Most VS models (and swimsuit/lingerie models in general) have fake boobs for instance, so I don't really feel like that they're all that special, they're just really tall, thin girls with fake boobs, period...Natural and normal looking girls with nice feminine proportions are the ones I admire and wanted to be like...not into tall and skinny, since I'm not tall nor would I like to be skinny :/

most VS models DON'T have implants... and if you look at them close enough, most have really small boobs. It just seems like they should have large boobs but they really don't...

Original Post by yellowcocopuffs:

most VS models DON'T have implants... and if you look at them close enough, most have really small boobs. It just seems like they should have large boobs but they really don't...

nah...they do, most of them anyways, not all...ofcourse there are skinny women out there with boobs...but a trained eye can tell between what's natural and what's not, and what most of them have stuffed into the chests are not natural :) (the well known ones like tyra banks, seal's wife, and this other woman I forgot her name...her ripples were caught in pictures) you can tell whether a woman's got fake boobs by the way the breasts look when they're lying on their backs, and sometimes you can even see a few ripples from the implant edges...ofcourse those get photoshopped out in the ads, but you tend to see those in candid shots during the photo shoot where the model is in her bikini/lingerie and getting all prepped up. A slight increase in breast size will not give them 'big boobs', just small, neat ones that help to make their chest area look less bony, some ofcourse opt for bigger C cup sized implants.

Besides, what's wrong with getting implants anyways if you have the moolah for it...so yeah, again I'll say it, most VS models have had implants, even the dangerously skinny Giselle has implants. It's no big deal. Getting implants for them millionaire celebs is like us regular folks getting a facial, or a manicure. My mom got implants when she was in her twenties, nobody had a clue, not even her own husband or her family members, they looked really natural and this was over 20 years ago, imagine how much better implants have gotten since then, so like I said it takes a trained eye to be able to tell (ie. a plastic surgeon).