Walking down the runway, there's the regular top models: Gemma Ward - 20, Hilary Rhoda - 21, Agyness Deyn - 25, and then there's the occasional Maddison Gabriel - 13. Wait a second. 13 years old?! Many people might raise their eyebrow when they hear this. I certainly did. But is 12-13 really too young?



Top model and one of the world's first supermodels, Janice Dickinson, argues against young girls modeling. "There's lots of drugs, there's lot of alcohol, there's lot's of photographers preying on these girls." Listening to that I would say that pre-teens and even girls up to 18 are too young to model. But what about Kimora Lee Simmons? Didn't she have a contract with Chanel at the age of 13? How come people never make a big deal about her?

Another issue about young models is the growing fear of eating disorders. There actually have been deaths amongst the models and that's when we all know that something is wrong. Even though there's such a huge controversy over skinny models, Karl Lagerfeld claims, "We don't see anorexic (girls). The girls are skinny, they have skinny bones." On the other hand, Vogue's editor, Anna Wintour is said to be sick of skinny models. Now going back to the main subject. If a young teen gets thrown into the fashion industry, are there chances of her developing an eating disorder? Highly possible, but some argue that since they aren't fully developed women, there is no reason to worry about their size and weight.

In my opinion, I think their should be a certain age requirement and if the model's too young, she just won't be able to model till they grow up. There's a lot of issues on the line such as sexuality, health problems, and too much stress that models might suffer in the fashion industry. However, I still wonder in awe when I see girls that are just 15 that are beautiful and know how to model. They have talent, no doubt about it, but are they presenting it at too young of an age? Well this debate may take a long time...

Article written by Chloe Jones.