::Pictures are worth a thousand words::

While the fashion industry is slowly moving toward using curvier models in runway shows and advertisements, it is important to look at the progression from where it started, to where it is now. A picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of lecturing on and on about the much needed move to curvier models, pictures are all the words I need to communicate the much needed change.

This is what was usually seen on runway shows before many banned this skinny of a model. Protruding ribs, thin arms, and emaciated faces were all too common in the fashion industry a few years ago.

It perplexes me that designers would want to use a model that looked like this. It lookes like she might fall apart right on the runway. For someone to see this and allow and influence models to look like this should be ashamed.

This is an America's Next Top Model winner and also a model that many young girls look up to. How are young teen age girls supposed to emmulate someone they look up to when they are slowly withering away. America's Next Top Model is a show that influences society and teen age girls, and to have the winner of the show have an eating disorder is not sending out the right message to teens and women in our society.

This picture is past the point of okay. It is even hard to look at. The one question that I have to ask is why no one else around her is having the same reaction as I am. How is this desirable, beautiful, or healthy? It is none of the above. I do not see how this model can walk around backstage in front of so many people and then be allowed to walk the runway like this. Maybe send her to the hospital anyone??

Even though the fashion industry has been critisized time and time again to stop using super thin models, many companies such as Dove and magazines are presenting all body types and urging their audiences to love their bodies and to be comfortable in their own skin.

In Italy's Vogue, many models have spoken out about the negative outlook on curvier bodies and speak their voice that they do not want to be a victim of the fashion industry and the eating disorders that often come along with it.

Marie Claire and many other magazine such as Glamour are moving to incorporate body issue articles and providing photo shoots with celebrities and models naked and without any touch ups or makeup. They are also providing pages with clothes that fit all body types and ways to dress to flatter each different body type whether slender or curvier. If more and more magazines represent the diverse body types that exist, than women and men will know that being a size zero is not the standard for everyone.

Dove is one of the leading companies to start the wave of body image campaigns. It promotes every body size and ethnicity that are melting pot of a country has. This was the first real promotion for women to accept who they are and love their bodies.

The Body Shop introduced a barbie that represented the average American female. Women around the world are not unexplainably thin like the Barbie we grew up with. I think this promotional tool was a very good way for people to look around at mass media and what we are subjected to. Should young teens be influenced by the classic Barbie that we know so well or should there be a bunch of different body sizes and ethnicities to promote a healthy and beautiful outlook?

Nike also jumped on the band wagon to promote a healthier body image and to love what you got. In this advertisement, a girl is talking about her butt and all the things that she loves about it. I think this advertisement will establish a common ground with many women because many of us have that one part of our body that we would like to change, but instead we need to learn to love our bodies.

From where the fashion industry started with models that could possibly be blown away with a slight breath of air, to companies promoting a healthier image, the fashion industry has started to use curvier models in their fashion shows and advertisements.

Crystal Renn defeated her war with her eating disorder and wrote the book 'Hungry.' Since she learned to love her body and started promoting a healthier image, her carreer has soared and is happier now than where she was as a young model. For a personal testimony like hers, we can see the terrible tragedies the fashion industry inflicts on its models and its audience and see how there is a way to fix it.

Curvy models such as models from Victoria's Secret were used in Louis Vuitton's 2010 spring fashion show, and many other designers are following suit.

From where the fashion industry started to where it is going now, is a miracle in itself. I am glad that the fashion industry has had so much commotion about the use of stick thin models who are dying from various eating disorders and was pushed to use curvier models that represented the average women in America. I think by using curvier models, it would help people be comfortable with themselves and reduce the amount of eating disorders that have been on the rise for years now. I think the fashion world still needs to push toward the healthier body image and keep on moving toward it.