环球英语 Thin Models
June 21, 2015
Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Colin Lowther.
Voice 2
And I’m Katy Blake. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand - no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
It is the night of a fashion show. What clothes will be popular this year? Many important people from the fashion industry are here. Designers, buyers, magazine writers and cameramen wait impatiently for the event to start. They talk quietly. Finally, the music starts. Beautiful young women walk out from behind a curtain. They are models. These models are wearing the newest clothes of the fashion season. They walk up and down so that everyone can see their clothes. Everyone is watching them. And at home, thousands of young girls are watching the models too. They see pictures of the models in magazines, and on television. Many of them want to be models too.
Voice 2
Being a model sounds like so much fun. Models have the chance to travel all over the world. They earn a lot of money. And best of all, people think they are extremely beautiful. But there is a growing problem in the fashion world. Many models are too thin. Some models stop eating normal meals. They believe they need to be very thin to succeed in their job. Today’s Spotlight is on the life of one model who became too thin.
Voice 1
Ana Carolina Reston Macan grew up in Jundai, Brazil. Her early life was good. She was a lovely little girl, and she was happy. But she had big dreams. She wanted to be a model. She would dance around the house in her mother’s shoes and clothes. And she asked anyone who had a camera to take her picture.
Voice 2
Things changed for the family when her father got sick. Over several years, his condition got worse. Finally, he lost his job. So Reston decided that she would earn money to help her parents. Her chance came when she was 13 years old. She heard about a local beauty competition. Reston felt full of joy. She immediately decided to enter the competition.
Voice 1
The day of the beauty competition arrived. Reston’s parents were in the crowd of people watching. They cheered when she came out. Everyone thought she looked beautiful. So did the judges. Reston won! The prize was a trip to Rio de Janeiro. She took her mother with her. They stayed in a top hotel and ate the best food. Reston felt good. She was making her family’s life better. And maybe her dream to be a model would come true.
Voice 2
Soon, Reston had more success. Famous modelling agencies wanted to work with her. She got a lot of work in Brazil. She was doing well. But she wanted to travel. More than that, she wanted her picture to be in all the top magazines. Then, in January 2004, she had the chance to work in Hong Kong.
Voice 1
In Hong Kong, Reston’s agency sent her to ‘castings’. Castings are meetings where companies choose models to work for them. During this process, models hear many severe comments. The hiring managers told Reston that she was too fat. Reston did not know how to deal with such criticism.
Voice 2
This was the first time Reston was so far from her family. And she had to stay in Hong Kong for three months. This new life was not what she expected. Reston felt lost and alone. Even worse, she started to feel bad about herself. She started to believe the criticism. Some fashion designers and agencies believe that clothes look best on tall, thin models. Reston’s weight was normal. But she started to believe she was fat. In a letter home, Reston wrote,
Voice 3
“I felt so small, the city so big. I did not understand anything... It did not go right. I failed.”
Voice 1
When the job was done, Reston returned to Brazil. But she had changed. She did not want to eat. This situation continued for some time. After nine months, Reston was sick. Laura Ancona is a fashion writer. She became friends with Reston around this time. Ancona quickly understood that something was wrong. She remembers that Reston would only drink fruit drinks. And Reston said that she could not eat any more. She said that when she tried to eat she felt sick.
Ancona knew that Reston had anorexia. This is a mental condition. A person with anorexia believes that she is too fat. She will stop eating enough food. People who have it usually do not think they have a problem. But everyone around Reston could see that that she was unwell. Ancona told journalist Todd Phillips:
Voice 4
“Everyone knew she was sick - the other girls, the agencies, everyone. Do not believe it when they say they did not know.”
Voice 2
Reston continued to work. She got international jobs in Japan, Turkey and Mexico. But she was living on a limited diet. She would eat just fruit, and only two kinds of fruit - apples and tomatoes. Reston lost 25% of her body weight. Finally, she was so sick that she could not work.
Voice 1
Reston told her mother that she felt pain in her body. Her mother was very worried. She immediately took Reston to hospital. But it was too late. On the 14th of November 2006, Reston died. Finally, her picture was in every magazine around the world. But it was there because she died from kidney failure, caused by anorexia.
Voice 2
Reston is not an exception. In recent years, three other young women (models) died in Brazil and two in Uruguay. All of their deaths were connected to anorexia.
Voice 1
In the years since Reston’s death, the fashion industry has started to deal with the problem. Organizers of shows in Spain, Italy, and Australia have banned extremely thin models. Brazilian modelling agencies will no longer accept girls who are too thin. In 2012, there was also an announcement from the famous fashion magazine Vogue. Vogue said that it would stop using models who were anorexic, or too thin. It would also stop using very young models. They would encourage designers to follow the same rules.
Voice 2
What do you think about this issue? Is the fashion industry doing enough to help young models? Write to us on our website at radioenglish.net, or at radio@radioenglish.net.
Voice 1
The writer of this program was Rachel Hobson. The producer was Nick Mangeolles. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again, and read it, on the internet at www.radioenglish.net. This program is called, ‘Thin Models’.
Voice 2
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.
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