Tiara Magazine

There are several factors that make an amateur, archetypal model and there are many ways to improve this standard and to become a professional strutting on the running with all the buzz. But before we dive into the wonderful and whimsical mysterious of what it takes to be that professional icon we will first tell you what you need to even start. It takes one thing. America’s Next Top Model is always talking about it…. it isn’t the weight loss or weight gain (sure muscle tone is great but anyone can have that!), it isn’t the best outfits or jewelry (again anyone can have that even on a budget), and it isn’t about having the most beautiful, flawless face in the world (Botox anyone?!). So what is it then? It starts with…. (To read the full article click on our link: Key to Successful Model Career)

Photos by JSK photography, MUA by Megan Melone, Model is Sherrie Gearheart

On August 2, 2006 at about 9:15pm, Luisel Ramos died of heart failure while participating in a fashion show during Fashion Week in Montevideo, Uruguay. After strutting the catwalk she was on her way to the dressing room when she passed out. She died at the young age of 22 years old. According to Luisel's father, he told the police she had gone days without eating. It was reported that she was told to drop some weight because if she did she would make it big so she began to live on Diet Coke and lettuce leaves. It was the death of Luisel Ramos that led to the banning of "size zero" girls walking the runway in Madrid, Spain. Models must have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 18 now to be considered healthy and on the runway.

Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston in 2005. She died November of 2006 from complications due to anorexia. Photograph: Eugenio Savio/AP
According to theguardian, "Jundiai town, Sao Paulo, Brazil. A brown-haired teenage girl walks on to the stage at the local beauty contest. Below, her parents, wedged at the front of a cheering audience, clap enthusiastically as a judge slips a green and white sash over their daughter's head and pronounces her the Queen of Jundiai, 1999. Her mother wasn't surprised: 'The other girls were podgy and had bottoms,' she said later. 'She won because she was slim and elegant.' It doesn't seem an earth-shattering achievement. But for 13-year-old Ana Carolina Reston Marcan it was one step nearer her dream of becoming a supermodel. It would take Reston (who dropped Marcan from her professional name) seven years to 'arrive', by which time she would be working as far afield as Hong Kong and Japan, for designers as well known as Giorgio Armani and Dior. But it was on 14 November of 2006 that she finally crossed over from being a successful catwalk model to appearing on the cover of every magazine and newspaper in Brazil, and making headlines around the globe. Not for her modelling, but for her agonising death, attributed to 'complications arising from anorexia'."

Another sad story of a model that died from anorexia, by the Washington Post, "Isabelle Caro (as seen above), a French actress and model whose emaciated image in a shocking Italian ad campaign dramatized the problem of anorexia in the fashion world, has died at the age of 28. News of her death on Nov. 17 in France was not released until Dec. 29. Ms. Caro's longtime acting instructor, Daniele Dubreuil-Prevot, told the Associated Press that the model had been sick for a long time" and had spent years in and out of hospitals. The cause of death could not be learned. Ms. Caro had said she began suffering from anorexia when she was 13, and she weighed about 59 pounds when the photos that made her famous were taken. After a 21-year-old Brazilian model died of the eating disorder, Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani produced a 2007 campaign for an Italian fashion house in which Ms. Caro appeared naked, looking over her shoulder at the camera, with vertebrae and facial bones protruding. The photo appeared in newspapers and on billboards under the slogan "No Anorexia." The campaign received widespread attention in Europe and the United States, and Ms. Caro spoke out often about anorexia and the menace of eating disorders on the fashion industry. In 2008, Ms. Caro published a book in France titled "The Little Girl Who Didn't Want to Get Fat." She served as a member of the jury on Top Model France and worked periodically as a film and television actress. She was interviewed by Jessica Simpson for the VH1 show "The Price of Beauty."

What can you do to help young girls in need? Tiara Magazine compiled a list of organizations that help build self esteem in young women, offer help, advocacy, and more!

Miss America 2008, Kirsten Haglund's national platform was eating disorders. She established the Kirsten Haglund Foundation The mission of The Kirsten Haglund Foundation is to provide hope, networking, and financial aid to those seeking treatment and freedom from eating disorders.

Other helpful organization's include:
Eating Disorder Foundation
NEDA and the HelpLine 1.800.931. 2237
Kristen Watt Foundation
Renfrew Center Foundation

You do not have to be a specific size to be a model. There is no perfect size or weight to be a model. This is perfectly stated by our editor in chief, Sherrie Gearheart, in one of her latest posts. This was prompted after a young girl on facebook asked Sherrie what the perfect size and weight of a model was... Here was her response, "The truth is that one must embrace his or her unique beauty and really play up their strengths. Personality will outshine any flaws as well. There are general specific requirements for certain areas of modeling such as for runway one should be at least 5’8 and taller. However I am 5’6 and I book a ton of runway shows. Also there are petite runway shows where you may be shorter. Same with size. Generally you will see that runway models are thinner anywhere from size 0-2. However, plus size modeling is on the rise. And again it depends on your client. All of the prom and pageant runway shows i have been to have wanted sizes 4-6 to be their models. So again, embrace your unique beauty, and find a catagory that you fit into. Never change yourself in an unhealthy way to be unrealistically thin so you can fit someone’s standards if it does harm to you. Instead embrace what you have, improve your weaknesses, and play up your strengths. The biggest thing you hear models say today is, what is the perfect weight? The answer is there isn’t a perfect weight. Its about being proportioned, looking healthy, being toned, and feeling great about yourself. I hope that helps. Models ask me all the time so I decided to share the information I have learned as a professional model, to break some misconceptions and myths about having to be ultra thin and tall to model. Embrace YOUR unique beauty and love the skin YOU are in."

Join Tiara Magazine's 28 days to a Beautiful You, kicking off October 1st, 2011. October will be filled with 28 days worth of tips to mold yourself into a new and true, beautiful you. Each day, Tiara Magazine, will provide a helpful tip on how you can become more confident, radiant, and truly love the skin you are in. These tips will be from our Editor, Tiara Models, titleholders, and staff. Why 28 days worth of tips you ask? It takes 28 days to learn a new habit! To truly celebrate our Oct 2nd, 2011 fashion show titled, Love the Skin You’re in, we will provide our fans with words of wisdom so YOU can truly love your body and grow into the person you have always wanted to be. Mark the date…. October 1st will kick off Tiara Magazine’s 28 Days to a Beautiful YOU! If you know of anyone suffering from a low self esteem, low confidence or poor body image, direct them to our site on October first so you can both take part in our 28 days to a beautiful you. There are also helpful links provided above for the appropriate help of eating disorders. To keep up to date on all of Tiara Magazine's articles click here.