Vogue Ban Says Too Thin and Too Young Are Out

Vogue has made a pact across its international family of magazines to no longer use models under the age of 16, or whose thin appearance suggests they have an eating disorder.

“Vogue believes that good health is beautiful. Vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers,” Conde Nast International Chairman Jonathan Newhouse said in a statement to the AP.

The company is asking that bookers confirm models’ ages via ID cards for all photo shoots, fashion shows and ad campaigns.

The statement goes on to recognize that models are role models to many women and the company wants to ensure that its models “are well cared for and educated in ways that will encourage and help them to take care of themselves, addressing as many of the pressing issues relating to ill-health in the industry as can realistically be tackled.”

The company’s decision reflects a growing movement against using unhealthy models in the fashion industry. In recent years, Israel, Italy and Spain have been leading the charge to keep models that don’t have healthy body mass indexes from catwalks. But Vogue’s move takes a very bold step beyond the catwalks.

The American, French, Chinese and British editions of the fashion magazine will start following the new guidelines with their June issues, while the Japanese edition will begin with its July issue.

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