>> Ali Michael recently went on The Today Show to talk about her struggles with weight as a model, and to promote an article on the same subject in the June/July 2008 issue of Teen Vogue, "Extreme Measures."
Within the article, she delves into more explicit detail about her eating habits — during last September's show season, she was eating "oatmeal with water for breakfast, a banana and a few grapes for lunch, and plain lettuce for dinner, maybe with piece of fish."
She lost her period, and "there was concern [her] ovaries had shut down." Her laxative use caused her digestive system to no longer function as it should, and now she has to take medication indefinitely. Even when she starting going to a nutritionist to improve her health, she was throwing up after meals in secret.
Finally, Ali "cracked" in January because the client who flew her in for a couture show canceled, saying she didn't have a "couture body." She focused on getting healthier and "put on a few pounds," but clients casting the February Paris shows told her she had "fat legs" and "huge ankles." She walked only one show — Yohji Yamamoto.
She says the Wall Street Journal article detailing her February show experience was a shock — she "never planned to go public." Surprising, since she is quoted in the WSJ article as saying of the Yamamoto show: "This show is special." But regardless, it will be interesting to see what happens with Ali and how the industry reacts, especially because she was so highly buzzed about before deciding to speak out.
*image: source


Milly
Miss Sixty
Hogan
I completely agree with the previous commenter on the hypocrisy of running Ali's story alongside spread after spread of rail-thin models sporting couture trends.Teen Vogue likes to pay lip service to teen health and wellbeing; nearly every single issue has an article about drugs or alcohol or eating healthfully or eating disorders. And yet every single issue has only skinny girls modeling the clothes. How is this responsible journalism?