The cover of today"s New York Daily News features an image of Canadian model Coco Rocha with the headline “Is she too fat to be [sic] runway model?” (We checked our calendars, and no, it’s not April 1.) The article refers to a New York Times piece published yesterday in which Rocha, who walked in the Diane Von Furstenberg show over the weekend, says she"s booking fewer jobs nowadays because designers think she’s not thin enough.

It’s fashion week season around the world, and the debate over extremely thin models has heated up. In Toronto, the National Eating Disorder Information Centre recently appointed a streetcar shelter with a trash slot into which women can deposit their fashion magazines; above the slot are the words “Shed your weight problem here.”

“I’m not in demand for the shows anymore,” Rocha, who is a size four, bluntly told the Times. She also talks about the psychological effects this has on models. “Girls are told they’re not skinny enough, or they hear, ‘She’s old, she’s boring, we’ve had her, she’s not tiny anymore.’ A lot of people don’t take into account the vulnerability of these young girls.”

“You know what? I’ve stopped caring,” she continues. “If I want a hamburger, I’m going to have one. No 21-year-old should be worrying about whether she fits a sample size.” Rocha has responded to the pressure by diversifying her career: she’s starting a clothing line titled Rococo, has worked as a correspondent for ET Canada and modelinina.com and writes frequently on her blog, Oh So Coco.
source:TORONTO LIFE