Hey…let's jazz up Next Top Model with a real live anorexic girl!
28 Apr
Jade has been fighting her eating disorder, anorexia, since age 8.
Jade is now 21. She has been in and out of treatment, and just six months ago she was hospitalized for her condition.
Let's put her on TV and completely exploit this ill young woman!
Jade has been "chosen" to be a modeling contestant ratings booster for Britain's Next Top Model.
Jade certainly does fit right in with fashion models of today, interesting how her modeling picture here looks as if it could appear in a magazine! She's a real pro!
Jade apparently does not have parents, since I don't see them jumping up and down to stop this circus.
Poor Jade is being set up. More pain, and heart ship will undoubtedly come her way….but damn it's gonna be great entertainment.
-mV
Hi, sorry not to be cheeky but its hardship not heart ship…lol although that is the sort of thing i do all the time.
New reader but love your blog.
Alanna
You’re right, she wouldn’t look at all out of place in a print ad…
I think it’s unfair to throw around statements like “Jade has no parents.”
If she is of age, then there is really nothing that they can do without a court order.
I am anorexic and I have parents who have
cried, screamed, and pleaded with me, “Please stop.” They did not show up at my job or work but they were there.
It truly saddens me to that someone might think that I have anorexia because I have no parents.
We don’t know the facts. She didn’t drive herself to treatment at 8 years old.
While her treatment team and family may not/probably doesn’t endorse this participation, from the photos you have posted here … she is not currently acutely ill. Just because she has had anorexia doesn’t mean she doesn’t share a common fascination with/dream to become a model. And if she has recently gone through treatment, then she probably earned the health to pursue it. She may, indeed, use the show as a platform for eating disorder awareness. I think she looks nice in the modeling photo above … not scary, not sick, but healthy. That’s a testament to persistence with treatment. Whether the modeling industry is conducive to ongoing recovery is another issue, but she may not be using the show to launch a typical modeling career but to get noticed in order to purse some particular career path within the industry.
While I have to agree that saying that she had “no parents” was a little overboard (come on, a lot of us have done something our parents didn’t want us to do), whether she’s healthy or not is a whole other issue. The modeling photo looks nice, but was it airbrushed in any way? Possibly. Whether she’s really getting healthier and help during the making of the show is a completely different issue. I believe recently someone on ANTM was booted out, and she was Anorexic, and no one knew.
I think its sad that BNTM is putting her in such danger just to get some more publicity, but ultimately its her responsibility to take care of herself. She’s 21, not 12, and all her parents can really do is shake their heads and hope it works out.
Unfortunately, I live near Britain and it’s already begun showing over here and on the second episode there was (surprise, surprise)a topless photoshoot, and Jade said that she was a bit uncomfortable doing it because of how tiny her body was. She said that she believed that girls look better with some meat on them and that she didn’t think girls should look like her. To me, this suggests that she is in some way thinking in a kind of ‘recovery mode’ but that she is at an unnaturally low weight for her. So just because she wouldn’t look out of place in a magazine does not mean she is the epitome of health by any means.
The whole thing makes me so sad. In the judging, the British equivalent of Tyra, Lisa Snowdon asked her how she had felt during the shoot and she expressed her concern, and the guest judge said something along the lines of ‘well you don’t need to worry about it. you are very slim but it works for you.’ Nice.
It saddens me that the modeling industry as it is at the moment, is only likely to encourage sickness rather than health and fulfillment in women like Jade.
And where were your parents when you were modeling mV?
If they were like mine when I was doing ballet, they were right there, driving me to rehearsals and auditions.
For someone who “understands” this disorder so well, its surprising that you would be ignorant to the fact that when it comes down to it, parents can do nothing. Sure if you are underage they can send you to treatment. After you are of age the best they can do is plead, which to the anorexic mind, does nothing.
I understand you are promoting awareness, but lets leave parenting out of this. Even you mV could do nothing if one of your children developed an ED. It wouldn’t be your fault nor any other parents fault. I certainly don’t blame mine for anything.
Perhaps try to focus on promoting awareness of the disease instead of criticizing the poor girls that it affects, as it appears you have been doing lately.
Are you kidding me? To all who think she looks good in this picture, take a closer look, beyond the fabulous hair and meticulous make-up.
She is skeletal. You can clearly see the outline of her collarbone and arm bones.
She is starving. Pretty she may be, that makes it all the sadder. So many of you are fooled into thinking her appearance is fine.
The girl with the “Doll eyes” in ANTM on this season also has an Eating Disorder…just hasnt been outted yet
I am horrified ! They shouldn’t be allowed to do this… People disgust me sometimes… Well, most of the time.
to be fair to her, on the application to britains next top model it asks you whether you have ever suffered from an eating disorder….and like YOU say mamaV in anther blog…PERSONAL RESPONSIBILTY. she knows exactly what the fashoin world is like these days…her choice if she chooses to enter it.
she has done a million interviews and gone to schools to talk about eating disorders and exceptance. so before you criticise the show and the producers..maybe ask WHY she is doing this.shes 21 and can make her own descions. whether they be bad or good.
I agree somewhat with G…at least she had the guts to admit her issue. Unlike many of the other ANTM contestants who have never admitted their issues, and it is clear many are under nourished and have unhealthy eating habits.
I think being up front about any ED while on the show will at least make the viewers aware that this is NOT A HEALTHYG BODY, IT IS NOT NORMAL…instead of portraying this skeletal models as ‘normal’ and ‘perfect’.
am a 11 year old girl and i weight a 130 or a 120 something pounds every1 this am fat so am going anorexic