34 24 34
34 24 34 probably means nothing to you. But to her, at that moment it meant the difference between perfection and failure.
“24. It needs to be at 24. I don’t care if you think it won’t go that tight. 24. 24.”
I guess you could use some background.
We were backstage at the Miss Teen Illinois 2020 pageant. The dressing room was in a frenzy. Evening gowns of every color were pulled over six-inch tippy-top heels and shapewear. Suddenly the shrieking began.
It was a beautiful dress, corseted and sparkling with two black marks on the strings of the lace-up back that showed how tight it had to be for the poor girl’s waist to be 24 inches.
24 inches, by the way, is the ideal model size according to IMG Modeling and Victoria’s Secret*. As you can probably guess, unless you are petite, a natural twig (and I mean TWIG-GY), or paid millions to workout every day, it is basically impossible to achieve.
I think of that moment a lot. Can any of us truly blame Miss 24 for being fixated and insecure about that number? Every time she turns on a screen or passes a billboard all that she can see are tiny waists somehow paired with long legs, an hourglass figure, white teeth, and perfectly clear skin. The unrealistic image we are bombarded with stirs up insecurities and then capitalizes on them by selling us the “solution.” How else would the beauty and fitness industry rack in a fat $532 billion every year*?
I thought I understood the extent to which the media, social media specifically, warps my personal beauty standards. I can look at the images and tell that what we are told to strive for is unnatural, and it is pushing us to manipulate our bodies in unhealthy ways. But, in reality, I had no idea just how extreme these images are.
According to a survey by the National Library of Medicine, on average since 2010 about “70% of the [female models] were underweight and greater than 75% of the [female models] were less than 85% of their ideal body weight*.” So when we are confronted with the unattainable likes of the Kimmy K and Bella Hadid it creates a VERY depressing rabbit hole that normalizes the gross manipulation of the human body and encourages us to celebrate it and desire it for ourselves.
Knowing all of this, I still see more and more girls captivated by the idea of being an “influencer,” dressing, talking, and basically just living like the biggest culprits of this trend. So, I wonder, even if these women are projecting unnatural body images, can someone my age sustain a lifestyle in which the end result would be the body type of these celebrities?
Naturally, I decided to find out by eating and working out like a Victoria’s Secret Model for 5 days. DUH.
Let me explain.
I needed an experiment to see if in a normal week, with all the activities and stresses of a person my age, if it was even feasible to eat and train with the discipline and intensity required by those in the media. Also, I could not go get plastic surgery to completely change my shape so I was stuck using the most “diet and exercise” centered regimen.
For five days my diet would be as follows:
And in addition, I would complete 2 hours of varying workouts on 4 of the days including boxing, pilates, yoga, and some of the training exercises from VS.
I plan to document every emotion and complication I have during the week to figure out if I could feasibly live this way AND if after doing for a week, I would even want to live like this.
Why?
Because just like Miss 24 could breakdown about that extra inch, then saunter on stage toting the tagline “confidently beautiful.” People, including yours truly, will still compare themselves to professional twigs because it is easy to fall into the habit, then pretend to be unbothered. Well, I actually wanted to be unbothered. And if it takes me shoving down kale for a week and getting yelled at by fitness instructors lose interest in the number 24, then so be it.
If you would like to see how this experiment goes and
if I actually learned anything from it, check back in a week.
*Claire, Marie. “What Model Scouts Look For.” Marie Claire. N. p., 2015. Web. 8 Nov. 2019.
*Beauty Has Blown Up To Be A $532 Billion Industry — And Analysts Say That These 4 Trends Will Make It Even Bigger.” Business Insider. N. p., 2019. Web. 8 Nov. 2019.
I loved this post! It’s so crazy to me that models have to live off of this meal plan, and schedule in so much time every day to work out. I found it very interesting that you set up an experiment with yourself as the guinea pig; I will definitely be checking back in for your next post to see how it went.
Loved reading this! I definitely agree with you, wannabe-influencers and Miss 24’s really just need some food for thought. Honestly, they could probably use a burger. Like you said, Kimmy K and Bella Hadid are setting pretty unrealistic beauty standards especially for the average girl that doesn’t want to pay for plastic surgery or eat a blade of grass for every meal. When it comes to the beauty and fitness industry, 532 billion dollars is ridiculous. It’s crazy how much effort girls are pressured to spend simply based upon what’s trending on social media. Serious respect, though, to models and those who manage to maintain such high levels of discipline with their diet. On that note, good luck with your diet plan! Excited to know how it goes.
-Kelly
This was such an interesting viewpoint and I enjoyed hearing about it! I had no idea about those unrealistic measurements and about the strict diets and lives of models. Being an influencer should have nothing to do with the measurements of a body! The amount of pressure these women put on themselves and have placed on them from others solely based off of their looks is ridiculous. Also those meal plans are completely unrealistic. I myself do cross country and our coach has us track the foods we eat to make sure we get 1200 calories BEFORE practice in order to maintain iron levels and overall nutrition/health. Those diets portions would have to be fairly large in order for them to reach that amount of calories (which is probably necessary considering the workout plan!). Good luck with your goals and I hope that there’s enough food for you to complete all those activities as well!
I really love how this post brings to light the dangerous role that the media has on women’s bodies. I agree with you, before reading this post, I thought I understood the small role the social media had on beauty standards. After reading this, I realized that this problem is really a lot bigger than what I could’ve imagined and extremely dangerous, models must be incredibly underweight for this to heppen.
24 inches might be the ideal model size, but this is extremely unrealistic, especially for models that are typically around 5’10” tall. As a extremely short girl at 4’11” (aka 17 year old in a 12 year old body), I know that 24 inches is a reasonable waist measurement for girls around my height.
However, for models nearly a foot taller, it is definitely cannot normal at all. Imagine a 12-year-old body with an extra foot of height. To be this thin isn’t rational at all, and I now understand how toxic it can be to viewers this can be if celebrities and influencers are promoting this lifestyle.