Madrid's move is a start. Somewhere, at sometime, someone has to start showing the reality of being a human being. Even the worlds top models don't hold these skinny numbers once they start maturing. Its unhealthy and requires a huge amount of work to keep that stick thin look and its as hazardous to the health of a human as being overweight. But until the world's top models start looking like human beings, our children are going to be starving themselves to make themselves look "perfect".

I think it is becoming more and more dangerous to young girls to see these awful looking women portraying themselves as the ideal woman.My 8 year old neice worries about her weight already and is always asking if she is too fat. She is rail thin!!! They look like they were rescued from the concentration camps. I make great lasagna and would love to grab these starving waifs and make them sit down and eat a big huge piece of it and not let them go to the bathroom to puke it up. My God the look isnt even attractive. They look more like 12 year old boys than women. I have curves and I enjoy them as does my husband. The women of the late 50s like Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield are what REAL women should look like but by today's standards they would be branded and ridiculed for being fat. It's really a shame.

Most high fashion designers are gay men, they design clothing for their ideal - which is young men. Models more closely resemble young men than woman. The models are as tall as men, have no boobs, hips or thighs, they are, for all intents and purposes, young men in makeup.

Ok, so how exactly is this NOT like the DRUG BUSINESS ? Meaning, mandating a "war on drugs" does not seem to amount to much when the real issue is that the CONSUMER is generating the DEMAND for the product, and hence the product does not go away. Curious, isn't it, that a generally overweight public is eager to see fashion on a generally underweight bunch of models.

Golly, all the "do-gooders" have their work cut out for them, since the number of young women working in men's social clubs in Asia alone will require global legislation to deal with -- perhaps a U.N. Security Council resolution ? Ha !

This is not to say that society should not be on the lookout for working conditions which may exploit workers in child labor situations. But the fashion business is global, and whatever Spain suppresses can be re-surfaced elsewhere in the world.

Let's face it -- this is, oo-lah-lahhh, "haute couture", and people who buy this stuff are willing to pay SERIOUS DRUG MONEY for the threads. You think the designers don't have the money to get the models they want ? It is almost like telling an artist NOT to do a piece of art because the subject is offensive. Oh, except for Angry Nasty Rap, that's ok, of course.

I am a model and this whole thing is really beating me down. I recently just came back from london fashion week getting bearly any shows becasue i am too thin. This really upsets me because i eat i dont strave my self and it really hurts being 16 giving up school, friends everything to find out i am banned. I love modeling but this is wrong. Just because i look thin doesnt mean they should take away my only dream. I love to eat.

I've been skinny my whole entire life not because i had choice but it just was given from my family genes, and trust me if i could i would love to gain weight atleast get my self to 115 pounds but i seriously can't because of my bone stucture so i feel that with some of these models they have my case but they look healthy but at the same time some are anorexic and are very unhealthy looking so i agree but I don't think they should turn away some of the healthy looking ones like heidi klum just the one who look near death

Madrid step is absolutely awesome!. Models are an ideal to perfection... anythng so far away from the reality. First of all, I want to blame to the designers and in second place, blame to the model agencies for accepting this girls and push them to be "on a diet" or extremely thin. Nowadays runways are pathetic. All pale faces, unhealthy looking and eating disorders became to be a daily issue, this is not a BIG NEWS anymore.. we live with that.
BRAVO MADRID!! BRAVO SPAIN!!!! - From Spain living in the US

What is sad is an extreme in any form. These young girls will suffer terribly as they age (assuming they age and don't die), with bone loss, osteoporosis, intestinal disorders, and invariably, fertility (and related) problems. High price to pay for any job.

It isn't just the girls that are worrying about being thin! This phenomena is spilling over into the male gender as well. My 10 and 12 year-old boys are worried about their weight, and neither can pinch an inch!

Kudos to Spain! It is about time these scrawny waifs were replaced! This "thin is in" ideal needs to be replaced with a more healthy approach!

I don't see what's so wrong with being skinny. Those overweight people need to learn that their disgusting FAT is going to cause them to have an early death from preventable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, etc..plus it looks disgusting and is unhealthy. I have a BMI of 16.1 and I eat a healthy, well balanced diet. I've never had an eating disorder. People need to learn that being fat is NOT acceptable.

I have an adolescent daughter who has a very healthy outlook on her body and her weight. She eats about five or six healthy meals and snacks a day and exercises about five days a week for about an hour. She also takes professional dance lessons and dances and practices her dances a lot. She is just beautiful. Even so, at a size 0, she wonders if she will ever gain too much weight as she gets older. She likes being a size 0. She doesn't like her thighs (as a dancer, she is going to have muscular legs). Being as petite as she is, even a little bit of weight shows up fast, so she keeps healthy by eating healthy and exercising, like I just said. Not only does she learn about proper body image from us at home, but she learns about it at school. In her school district, they teach the kids about nutrition, healthy food choices, and exercise options. She's a very active kid. Sure, she has the occasional Blended Cream Vanilla Bean from Starbucks--but that's only twice a month. She already knows that overindulging isn't good--but depriving one's self isn't good either. I think that it helps when parents and schools work together to promote HEALTHY body images--BUT it's SO hard with all of the peer pressure. So far, our daughter is handling it well (she gets no pressure because she is very petite--but if she weren't, I would truly be afraid of what might happen--despite the efforts made on behalf of school and home). Parents, please give your kids healthy dining options at home--don't buy into all of the junk that's around. Also, getting your child to cook what they eat is a nice way to get them to learn more about food. And also, work out WITH them. Kids learn by example. If they see you eating right and exercising--no matter what YOUR size or BMI is, they will follow suit. Good examples are hard to come by these days. And, boys can have just as many unhealthy habits as girls can--don't ignore the boys in this, everyone! Be a good leader!

I think this is nonsense, if these women want to look like sticks, who cares? Conversely if Spain wants to ban them from the runway that is fine too. I think these models look ridiculas anyway, but that is just my opinion. I would seriously steer my daughters or grand daughters away from this silly profession, and I use the word profession loosely..........amen.

It's good that people are realizing that being this skinny is ridiculous. HOWEVER. It's really people's own faults if they have eating disorders. You make decisions about these things. These models aren't meant to be "real" they're meant to be icons - as close to perfection as possible and therefore unattainable. And that is the point. A normal person should not attain this. Models are like fodder - they sacrifice a real life to be models (though it may not seem like sacrifice). No, the people who are really to blame is everyone who looks at them and thinks that they have to be like those models on the runway, or allows their children to think that and wear clothes designed for adults. Can't blame the industry for that - only the stupidity of modern day people.

I don't know how much of an effect Madrid will have. The only real way to affect change in any industry is for you and I as the consumers to refuse to consume the product until there is change. If enough people refused to buy the magazines, fashions or allow our minor daughters to participate until there was a shift to healthier looks. The industry would eventually have to change. The reality is that they are only giving what they think the general public wants. The articles blame the designers asthetic but that asthetic is entirely based on what the designer thinks we want to see in an attempt to sell us the design.

The article also mentioned factors like puberty making unusually tall girls appear overly thin. To that I have to ask where are the parents? Are they by any chance the true reinforcers of the problem? Turning a blind eye to their pubecent or pre-pubecent daughters eating disorders in order to gain that large modeling check?

I personally refuse to by my child any magazine that shows any girls who are frighteningly thin or that puts too much emphasis on being thin. I don't want my child to be obese but I don't want them to be Twiggy either. There is a level of health that should be the benchmark not size or even BMI but health. Can they do all of the things they want to do without a lack of fitness getting in the way? I want my children to realize that not everyone who is thin is beautiful and not everyone who is fat is ugly. Regardless of what Paris, London, New York and Milan say.

Models who are so thin that their bones show are certainly not attractive. The clothes just hang on them and they set a very dangerous precedent for young girls. I have a daughter who has been obsessed with her weight since she was a teenager when she went to Barbizon and they told her that her hips and thighs were too big. Women come in all shapes and sizes and I think if men were honest, most of them like a woman with a little more shape than bones.

What kind of message are seriously skinny models sending, not just to our kids, but to our society? Women are made to have curves, our hips and breasts are made for babies, our stomachs are made for cradling them; we ARE NOT designed to be clotheshangers. There's nothing shameful about being voluptuous, but that's not the message we're hearing from modeling agencies, movie stars, "ideal" women so stick thin they would die in childbirth. I have no problem whatsoever with naturally skinny women, so stop trying to give all women a complex about skinny vs. whatever. Marilyn Monroe was a size 14! The average american woman is a size 12. What's ideal, anyway? When did we relinquish control of our own self-images, of our own bodies, to fashionistas and directors? Banning unhealthy models is the first step towards something bigger; not just being healthy, but being comfortable with who we are as humans, and as women.

Can you stop all these negative comments. Do you realize how much this hurts i feel like crying everytime I read it.

Well I think it is completely ridiculous that they are turning models down for being too skinny. I am not a model, but I am very skinny, and I consider myself pretty, and my BMI is only 17, but I look good. I don't try to be skinny, I just am, I eat whatever I want. Heidi, Paris, and Kate all have BMI 18 or lower, according to this article and they look good. In my opinion, they should not set restrictions, just pick who they think looks good.

All my young life I was so thin. I hated it. I barely ate one meal a day. I wanted to look like everyone else and have a nice butt and boobs. But I had trouble eating because my stomach was shrunken. I looked more like a twig. I wore a size 1 wedding dress. After having my daughter I kept on the weight I gained while I was pregnant. I am somewhat overweight now, but I wouldn't trade the lbs. to look like a skeleton again.

my neice is rail thin. a size zero or some un godly number as 0. she has been this thin since she was very young, she is 32 now. i have seen this girl eat and only wish i could eat half as much and not gain weight. i think if a model can prove that they are under-weight because they are naturally that weight they should not be banned. but if they cannot prove it, via a dr. or family or whatever, maybe several forms of proof, then they should be banned until they have their disorder under control and are a healthy weight. it is good someone is finally taking a stand because young children are beginning to view this eating disorder thing as a way of life to be what they think is beautiful when in fact it is not beauty at all but an eventual death sentence.