My group and I facetimed a model named Reilly Chaffin. We wanted to talk to her about the modeling industry, the pressure of being a model, how her life changed when she became a model, and what kind of example does it give to young girls. One thing that Reilly said is that she became a model at a very young age. She was “discovered” at 15 and she left high school to start cyber school, online school so that she can get more time for modeling. Once you become a model you need to make some serious life changes and you start getting controlled by the people you work for. She also recalled that when you would walk into a room full of models they would all look the same: blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, thin, big lips. She said that sometimes you would feel more like a number rather than an individual person. Reilly said that there was defiantly pressure to look a certain way. She remembers that she would get measured a lot by her agency. At one point Reilly was running and her agency forced her to stop running because her thigh were getting too “muscular” and they would sometimes say she needed to lose weight. Sometimes her agent would refuse to send her to auditions because “something was wrong” with Reilly’s skin. We asked Reilly how she feels the media portrays women and does it have to be addressed and how in particular are young girls affected by this? Reilly said how crazy it is that the Victoria Secret Fashion show is one of the most watched television events. Young girls are looking at the supermodels and they wonder why they don’t look like that. In reality these models get breast implants, work out 3 times a day, get 3 facials a week, don’t eat carbs. None of this is normal. When you are younger you see all of this on TV and you wonder why you don’t look like that and what is wrong with you. Young girls look up to these models and they google pictures of them, then they go out and buy clothing to look like them. Reilly think that the way young girls see these models in the media defiantly affects them and brings their self esteem down.
