Skinny Models? San Anselmo, Fairfax Lawmaker Wants Minimum Standards

MILL VALLEY, CA - Some models in advertisements and walking runways at fashion shows not only look impossibly thin, they look unhealthy with protruding ribs and sunken eyes.

Now Assemblymember Marc Levine (D-Marin County) wants to make changes to both protect the models and to set a healthy example for young girls.

Levine has introduced AB 2539. It would require the adoption of modeling industry health standards including periodic health check-ups, nutrition consultations, and appropriate medical testing as needed.

“The evidence of eating disorders in the modeling industry is alarming. AB 2539 will make sure that models are not enduring physical harm as a workplace prerequisite,” said Assemblymember Levine. “This is a societal problem as unhealthy models have become role models for young people. As California often leads the nation and the world, this bill will help assure that our children will see healthy images on magazines and fashion websites.”

“AB 2539 sends a powerful message that Californians are no longer willing to just sit on the sidelines as the health and safety of professional models – many of them still young girls – are jeopardized by the industry’s inhumane and dangerous standards of thinness,” said S. Bryn Austin, ScD, Professor at Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital. “This bill not only marks a crucial, life-saving step forward to protect models but also will help to change the very image of fashion. Fashion media is saturated with images that send distorted and unhealthy messages about ideals of weight, shape, and beauty for women. AB 2539 will help change that and ultimately help us send a much healthier message about what our society values in girls and young women.” Dr. Austin is also Director of the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders at Harvard University.

AB 2539 will add the following requirements in California law:

• The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board and the State Department of Public Health must adopt health standards for models
• Models are required to receive a physician’s certificate that the model meets the above health standards
• Modeling agencies shall be licensed by the California Labor Commissioner
• Models shall be the employees of the modeling agency
• Modeling agencies are required to keep records and may be fined if they hire models who do not have a current physician’s certificate

The effect of super skinny models on young girls is well documented. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reports:

• 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures
• 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape
• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat