“I thought this could be a chance to use my suffering to get a message across, and finally put an image on what thinness represents and the danger it leads to – which is death.”
Isabelle Caro was only 28 when she died.
The French model posed naked for controversial anti-anorexia posters in 2007 to try and raise awareness of the devastating effects anorexia can have. She wanted to spread the word to girls that it’s not how skinny someone is that determines how beautiful they are.
At one point Isabelle weighed a tiny 3 stone 13 lb.
With impressionable young girls being exposed to size zero models and stick thin celebrities all the time, with Western societies obsession with dieting and surgery to change ones appearance, its no wonder that girls (and guys) are not happy with the way they look. In one survey of female high school students it was found that a massive 85% of those who were a normal weight wanted to be thinner, and, even more worryingly, nearly half of the girls who were already underweight still wanted to be skinnier.
Perhaps most shockingly, the onset age for anorexia has decreased to children ages 9 to 12. That’s primary school age. Kids that age should be far to busy playing ‘tag’ or ‘forty forty in’ in the playground to be concerned about their weight and their looks.
Yet, despite these shocking statistics, several countries, including Italy, banned the poster because it “breached two of advertisings codes of conduct.” Apparently, it broke article one which states that, “advertising must be honest, truthful and accurate.” We see celebrities photoshopped and retouched all the time. Surely that’s not giving a “honest, accurate and truthful” portrayal of what they really look like. But when a woman shows anorexia in it’s full and shocking form then it’s banned? People need to be shocked because it is the only way they can understand the devastation such a disorder can cause.
The effects of anorexia needs to be publicised. Size 0 models need to be banned and all models should be a healthy weight for their height. This could save lives. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness with 18-20 % of anorexics dead after 20 years. Only 30- 40% will ever recover.
“If I can put my years of suffering to good use then it will not have been pointless…no young girl wants to look like a skeleton.”
theodd1in 
Thanks for sharing this. It’s a sad reality which should be talked about.
This is really unfortunate; our society – primarily the media – needs to do a better job of focusing on other levels of beauty – not skinny, scrawny people:( Great post and I look forward to sharing more with you:)))
Thank you for sharing. The other, often unmentioned, part of the disease is how it is affecting more and more guys. Beauty comes in all forms as does this evil disease.