23 hours ago
7 
When Leanne Maskell was just 13, she stepped into the world of modelling for the very first time, appearing in international editions of Vogue for her first-ever job.
Her mum had signed her up to a modelling agency, and subsequently, Leanne appeared in regular photoshoots for fashion magazines throughout her teens.
At school, she’d been bullied for the way she looked. In the playground Leanne was shamed about her skin, and by the time she hit her teens, she was 5’11 and the tallest girl in her class.
However, the second her classmates saw the pictures, the very same people who tormented her, applauded Leanne for how ‘great’ she looked, attesting to the power the modelling industry held – and still holds.
‘It didn’t make sense to me. I still looked the exact same way as I had when they’d been bullying me,’ Leanne tells Metro. ‘At the same time, I’d often be heckled by strangers driving by, making me feel extremely scared.’
In 2011, five years after her debut, the teen moved to London, already worn down by the expectations of the modelling industry.
At shoots, she felt uncomfortable getting undressed by strangers as she changed outfits, while she was often encouraged to do things she didn’t understand, ‘like posing in sexually explicit ways’.
When Leanne – who has since founded ADHD Works and is the author of The Reality Manifesto – was approached to sign with another agency after moving to the capital, she was promptly measured and immediately told to ‘lose three inches’ from her hips, or else she wouldn’t be accepted.
‘When I said no, I was told that the person who scouted me may be fired,’ she remembers.
Though she was reluctant, Leanne was told that all she had to do was just ‘stop eating breakfast for three weeks’, so she did. What came next was months of starvation, constant measurements, and intense self-hatred – a cycle that continued for years.
‘I experienced pressure to lose weight for the next decade, whether that was from clients or other agencies,’ she recalls. One agency even shouted at Leanne over the phone for daring to ‘put an inch on’ her waist, while she was declared ‘overweight’ at a size 8-10.
Modelling didn’t just teach Leanne to hate her own body, but to completely disconnect from it.
‘I received every insult possibly imaginable from strangers. I found that the easiest way to survive was to agree with them, so I’d be apologising on a daily basis for things like my “asymmetrical face” or “uneven eyebrows,”’ she recalls.
Leanne adds that during the depths of her career in the 2000s and 2010s, the culture surrounding body image was ‘terrible’. When she started out, everybody looked exactly like her – ‘tall, blonde, and thin’ – despite the fact that many agencies told them they were ‘overweight or curvy for not being a size zero.’
However, around 2012, when Instagram started to become popular on a mass scale, Leanne sensed a change towards a more ‘body positive’ stance. At subsequent model castings, she was ‘repeatedly told that the client was looking for a “real woman.”’
‘Suddenly, the models that looked like me on jobs were replaced by women of different shapes and sizes,’ she explains.
‘I thought this was a great thing, but many of my size 12 friends who had been working as plus-sized models, were pressured to put on weight or wear padding on shoots.’
Soon society was being told that bodies were beautiful no matter their size, as body-positive influencers – and even celebrities, such as Lizzo and Oprah Winfrey – started to recall their own journeys towards self-love and self-acceptance.
The word ‘fat’ was reclaimed as something not only to proudly identify as, but could also no longer be used as an insult.
It was finally okay to be bigger…that was, until now.
At last month’s Paris Fashion Week, luxury fashion house Casablanca utilised exclusively thin models, while last year, Berlin-based fashion brand Namilia went viral after plastering its controversial ‘I Love Ozempic’ t-shirt all over its 2024 Berlin Fashion Week runway.
Vogue’s most recent size-inclusivity report shows that of the 8,800 looks showcased on 230 catwalks across the Autumn/Winter 2024 season, less than 1% included plus-sized models (US size 14/UK 18) and up.
The representation for ‘mid-sized models’ – US 6-12/UK 10-16 -was only marginally better, at 3.7%.
Even high street brands have been called out, after a Next advert was banned for featuring an ‘unhealthily thin’ model, which later turned out to have been digitally altered.
Psychodynamic psychotherapist Yvette Vuaran believes that the resurgence of early 2000s fashion has ‘unfortunately brought with it the harmful body ideals of that time’ – but in the modern era, it’s even more exacerbated by the rise of technology.
‘Low-rise jeans, visible hipbones, and ultra-thin aesthetics are again being glamourised, but now they’re amplified through social media channels that didn’t exist during the original era, giving these images unprecedented reach and influence,’she tells Metro.
‘From my therapeutic perspective, this trend cycling creates particular challenges for those who lived through the 90s/00s the first time. For many people, today’s thin ideal triggers traumatic memories of their own struggles during that period.
‘It can reawaken dormant body image issues or eating disorder patterns that had previously been managed.’
Meanwhile, prescriptions for weight loss medications have skyrocketed. 50,000 people in the UK are currently taking either Mounjaro or Wegovy, according to Simple Online Pharmacy, with data from Oushk Pharmacy revealing that Gen Z is leading the surge in weight loss injections.
Dr Lara Zibarras is a food freedom psychologist and an eating disorder recovery coach and has noticed firsthand that the ‘pressure to be thin’ is increasing. She tells Metro that ‘people who were once poster figures of body positivity have been losing significant weight – some doing so quietly, while others openly admit to using weight loss drugs.
‘While I firmly believe in “their body, their choice,” this trend is leaving many people in larger bodies feeling isolated,’ she adds.
‘Psychologically, constantly being told that only a thin body is acceptable can negatively impact self-esteem and trigger disordered eating habits. This narrow focus makes people feel like they’re never enough, which is especially damaging for those who are already vulnerable.’
So what happened? When did we fall out of love with being happy in our skin, whatever our size?
Leanne, now 32, believes that the whole thing was a ‘sham’ from the very beginning.
‘I think it’s clear to see that the pretence of the “diversity” trend is coming to an end, with the introduction of weight loss injections and unimaginably high rates of eating disorders in the UK,’ she says.
‘Social media has taken the existing inherent issues of the fashion industry and magnified them, which is ultimately because capitalism is based on making people feel they aren’t “good enough” as they are – making them buy things. If women liked how they looked, entire industries would collapse overnight.’
For Leanne, who quit modelling for good last year, the rise of weight loss injections is akin to ‘another form of plastic surgery,’ and ‘simply sets a new standard of “normal”’, which filters down to everyday, vulnerable people – who are often young women.
‘If even fashion models are made to lose weight and called ugly, what’s the point? There’s never a “good enough” point at the end of the rainbow. Beauty does not exist as a checklist – it’s in your energy and the lines on your face that show you’ve lived.’
‘It feels like bodies are just trends’
Ashley James started off her career as a DJ, TV presenter, and nowadays, she’s a well-known voice in the world of feminist activism. Over the years, she’s modelled on and off – and has seen first-hand the pressure many have faced to ‘shrink’ themselves.
‘I remember taking pictures of myself as a teenager and sending them to loads of agencies and none of them replying apart from one local one,’ remembers Ashley, 37, who grew up in the Lake District.
But when she quit her job at the age of 25 and got into the TV industry, she was able to take on more modelling jobs – though she has never considered it a full-time career.
Ashley tells Metro that she believes there’s always been a lot of pressure on models to restrict themselves and to be an unhealthy version of themselves.
‘Some models I know are the most insecure people. Even though they are projected as the face of unrealistic expectations, they also feel affected by them as their bodies are photoshopped,’ Ashley explains.
‘What is really sad is that it feels like bodies are just trends. We saw skinniness in the 90s and then it was such a great moment when body confidence and positivity had its moment over the last decade.’
Throughout her 20s, Ashley admits she suffered intensely with body dysmorphia – to such an extent that she had constant panic attacks.
‘I felt like I needed to be the smallest version of myself to be happy; my body shape meant I couldn’t be taken seriously, and I punished myself for the body I had,’ she remembers.
But as her 30s dawned, Ashley realised that she couldn’t live with ‘such a lack of self-esteem anymore,’ and actively decided to unpick a lot of the things she’d been taught about diet culture and ‘impossible’ beauty standards growing up.
When she welcomed her first child in January 2021, the TV presenter then found herself having to navigate conversations surrounding pregnancy and ‘bouncing back’ with weight loss, while she simply just wanted to feel ‘healthy’ in her body, having experienced piles, prolapse and incontinence post-partum.
‘It’s quite frustrating that we still associate the post-partum recovery with whether or not we’re going to try and lose weight or not,’ says Ashley. ‘It’s really reductive when we should be celebrating what our bodies have done, and giving our bodies time to heal.’
Yet despite concerns about the decline of the body-positivity movement, Ashley feels there will always be a place for it, particularly online. She herself has made an effort to ‘diversify’ her feed.
‘You don’t need just one type of body to be considered beautiful, powerful or confident,’ she explains. ‘Self-love and compassion don’t come from hating ourselves; they come from respecting ourselves and loving ourselves.’
Dr Lara’s approach is to remind people that health and beauty standards have always been evolving. She also points out that we need to be mindful in this new era; that we don’t fight body shaming with more body shaming.
‘Body acceptance isn’t about shaming people who take weight loss medication or who are naturally slim,’ she explains. It’s about creating a world where people are free to care for their bodies in a way that works for them – without pressure, judgment or moral value attached to size.
‘In the 1920s it was about having a boy-like figure; 1930s curvy was best; 1960s you had to be petite; the 1980s celebrated strong, toned bodies; the 1990s embraced heroin chic; the 2000s celebrated a curvier look with big boobs, a bum, and a small waist; the 2010s saw more body diversity – and now we are here,’ she adds.
‘So, if you’re feeling insecure, know that this phase is temporary. Instead of chasing a shifting ideal, focus on what makes you feel strong and healthy right now, and trust that your worth isn’t defined by your size.’
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·