Working as a teenage model gave me PTSD, says Jennifer Sky.
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Jennifer Sky is a former model and a writer. Her image has been used since she was a child. She’s still using it. But with a different approach: as a models’ rights advocate to make people realize what’s behind modeling.
Not only does she help us understand better what’s behind the pictures we’re looking at in magazines, videos and all kind of media. But she also make an important call to parents. To fathers. All those who keep on telling their daughters how beautiful they are. And, for the most beautiful of them, how they could use that quality to make charming pictures.
As a father, I am wondering how I should deal with the omnipresent images of women in the streets and in the media. How should I talk to my daughters about their natural, innocent, pure beauty ? Should I think about what kind of pictures I am taking of them, now that they’re 3 years old and what I am creating in terms of things I value the most in their beings ?
This film and this campaign are important. Very important.
I suggest we help it by sharing that call and sign the petition of change.org against the abuse of children. Might be a small step. We should take it anyway.
Here’s part of the message:
As someone who was abused as a child model, I am calling for the creation of an action committee to define and enforce labor protects in the fashion industry. 54% of models begin working on or before the age of sixteen. Agencies start recruiting at age thirteen. Many of the pictures in your favorite fashion magazines are little girls dressed up to look like women. This past fall, New York State passed the Child Model Law, granting protections for minors working as models in the fashion industry. Protections such as school-night curfews and on-set hour limits, chaperones, tutors and mandatory financial trusts are now law. Endentured to their agencies, models often return home traumatized and with little to no compensation. With the global clothing and textiles industry now generating upward of 2.5 trillion dollars a year, fashion can afford to offer positive work environments for their models. Please join me in helping to improve the labor conditions for these young workers.
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Read more from Jennifer Sky on New York Magazine and Gernica Magazine.