When Tyra Banks had her breakthrough runway season in Paris in 1991, booking a record 25 shows, she was a size four. Now, she says, she'd never even make it past a casting at that weight...
In an open letter to the modeling community (published at The Daily Beast), she praises *Vogue'*s recent announcement that they are banning models who "appear to have an eating disorder" from their pages in all 19 international editions. She goes on to discuss her own trajectory (that's her in 1990, above) and says the current state of the industry would never have let a girl like her succeed: "The truth is that if I was just starting to model at age 17 in 2012, I could not have had the career that I did. I would've been considered too heavy. In my time, the average model's size was a four or six. Today you are expected to be a size zero. When I started out, I didn't know such a size even existed."
She goes on to talk about how the pressure to stay thin is ever-present: "People get upset with you if you're a very thin model. What many don't know is that a certain sample size has been set by the industry, and you're doing everything in your power to keep working. At times, I feel there's an unspoken rule that says, 'there's no such thing as being too thin, as long as you don't pass out'...With Vogue's new mandates, things, I hope, will now change for the better."
Click over to The Daily Beast to read the full letter, then weigh in with your comments. Do you think Tyra's right, and that her career never could have even gotten started as a size four in 2012? Do you think Vogue's initiative will, in fact, change things for the better? Or is the fashion industry just running around in circles on this issue? Discuss.
PLUS!
Body image: Why experts are encouraging women to stop worrying about their age
Weight stereotyping: The secret way people are judging you based on your body
