Tonight was the first time I have seen A Model Life and I'm so angry I could scream! The ONE girl that was healthy and had a normal weight and BMI was told her body was not good enough. Of course they tried to play it off like they just wanted her to "tone" her body, but let's get real...they were telling her to lose weight!! Why don't you just say it like it is...we don't want you to be healthy we want you to be a hanger for our clothes!!! It's Disgusting!

As a person who was once anorexic, tonight's show disgusted me beyond belief. It was insanely hypocritical that they spent the first half of the show as if they were these saints of the modelling industry who believed girls should not starve themselves, then spend the last 10 minutes of the show telling the BEAUTIFUL Lucia that she needed to lose weight????? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!! The trainer was right, she is perfect, Petra, also beautiful, looks of a similiar size to Lucia. It would be better to just go on being the superficial, eating disorder industry that fashion is, then to be a bunch of hypocrites and pretend to be concious of the fact that these young girls should be healthy, it looks dishonest. The best part is that one woman, who I am sure has not missed many meals, saying to the photographer that Lucia really needs to do something about her body-yeah, yeah, I know, she is not a model, but maybe that is where the problem lies, in the idea that bones are beauty.

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when I worked as a photographer I was at my smallest weight a size 7... and I felt like I was hypocritical elephant when I would say "she photographs fat" or telling them to watch their thunder thighs..while at the same time one of my thighs was as big as their whole body!

Okay, so I thought it was completly disgusting that Michelle was 5'8" and was 100 pounds. I mean just looking at her you can tell she has some kind of eating problem. I am 4'11" and I don't even weight 100 pound because my doctor tells me that would be a dangerous and unhealthy weight for my height. Michelle looks sick and she needs some kind of intervention. I mean honestly women are really not into the concentration camp look. She looks like she has been living in a third world country and was not fed. I feel sorry for her and for anyone that thinks that she looks good. They all have a distorted view on what a normal, healthy body should look like. I just don't understand how the fashion industry can be so unhealthy when they have the power to change the way women and specifically girls can look and feel about themselves. I just think it's sad and it's even sadder that the big people in fashion such as the designers let this happen to these young women and brain wash them into thinking that other regular, normal women will buy clothing if you look like that. It's sad that so many models have already died from all kinds of eating disorders and the fashion industry thinks that it is okay. I feel bad for anyone that works in fashion because you are a slave to a pathetic image that looks like death. Personally I think that Lucia and the other girls (with the exeption of Michelle) are extremely beautiful and any other woman would kill to look like them and yet for some odd reason they are not good enough for the fashion industry. What ticks me off is the people who are telling them to lose weight are the one who look like they need to be told to lose weight. I just don't know...this show has frustrated me and I wish our society's few of beauty and weight could change for the better of womenkind.

I am highly disturbed about this weight loss nonsense as well!!! The one girl who is healthy according to the nutritionist brought in is told to lose weight while the other girl is praised for doing a good job!! These agents are killing young fashion models. Why even bring it up if you're going to treat the audience like idiots!!??? This industry has a huuuge problem. I am disappointed that Petra, a healthy enough looking woman is involved in the subterfuge by Next. She seems like a solid role model for up and coming models, but the agency is full of this weight loss foolishness. Lucia looks like an actual woman-!!!

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I agree with all of you. If this show continues with this I have no intrest at all.

Amen to all the previous comments about the absurd comments on Lucia's weight.I just happened to catch the show while waiting for my husband last night and was impressed when Petra gave her talk about fitness and nutrition and had a fitness and nutrition EXPERT come talk with the girls.How stupid do these producers think we are when 20 minutes later the ONE girl (and most beautiful in my opinion) who was told she was at perfect BMI level and health is criticized for being "overweight" and then to cover their tracks they changed that to "not toned in the right places." And who were the people making those judgments?Two people who looked like they could use not only major TONING but WEIGHT LOSS for their own personal health as well! (Maybe they should visit the fitness expert and see the personal trainer they are sending Lucia to.) I can't believe that woman had the nerve to say she didn't like Lucia's "butt." I'll bet it is a lot more toned than the one that woman was sitting on. (And I sort of thought "butts" were in right now - Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, etc. When I was younger thin lips were in and mine are full. I painted concealer over them for years. Now people are getting their lips "plumped up" and finally I can say, "Hey, I was born with these babies!" Just goes to show you how fashion comes and goes and most of us foolishly ride the waves.) Of course the two people doing the critiques did not claim to be models or seem to want to be but the reality is that that woman looks more like most women than any of the 6 models. I'd love to see clothes made for the way a full grown, healthy woman really looks (at 16 you haven't even finished developing yet). And then, Michelle!!! She does have her own beauty but to praise her for her "look" after she had just been told how unhealthy she was sends the WRONG message to all girls who may be watching this. Of course Michelle will dump the vitamins suggested for her and the protein powder that she already refused to take.She'll end up with weak bones, a damaged heart, and ruined immune system by 30 if she's still alive but by that time a GIRL'S modeling career is generally over so who'll be there to care? What a bunch of lip service this episode was. Oh! not to mention the fact that Michelle in the lingere looked like the very child she is if not younger.All I could think was, yeap, here is our culture providing fuel for the pedophiles out there.We condemn them but look at what we take pictures of and praise. Interesting that the guy judging liked her pictures while the woman didn't, hmmm - makes you think. Oh, and didn't you love that woman's pun that Lucia will do something about her "problem" if she is "hungry enough" to want to make it?! HUNGRY!
I hope Lucia was not crushed by the critique she received.She certainly was given mixed messages as were all girls and who saw this show.
If Lucia gets booted because of her hips and thighs (that most American women would die for)it will be a travisty. I like seeing a model who doesn't look like a little boy with makeup.Women out there, don't we all realize we are being slammed here? Given images that are totally unrealistic? Having our self-esteem and confidence smashed? It is just another way of "keeping us in our place." We need to let ourselves grow up, appreciate our own and other people's beauty, and get on with THINKING and making a difference rather than figuring out another way to STARVE ourselves into someone else's creepy image of what a woman is supposed to look like. I'll flip channels in the other direction next week.

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Ooopss! Just posted the following, but in the wrong section.I apologize for this error.

I watched this show for the first time today.In the first few minutes, "Michelle" attracted my attention, but for the wrong reasons! As a clinical dietitian/nutritionnist, I was shocked!! This aspiring model looks severely malnourished and underweight just like many of my anorexic patients.She is neither thin nor skinny, she is sick.She does not project the image of a healthy individual at all. Mr.Joujon-Roche (the trainer) pointed out that her BMI was dangerously low,but she did not seem to grasp the severity of her condition--she did not even take the recommended supplements... The agency staff seemed to promote unhealthy eating habits by approving of "Michelle" dangerously low BMI.Several individuals have died because of eating disorders, this is very serious.
I guess from the postings above that I'm not the only person who thinks that "Michelle" has a serious medical disorder.

Yes, i am glad that I was not the only one disguisted by this episode. Well, perhaps more like disappointed and feeling sorry for the "models". Michelle is so emaciated, it looks wrong. The thing is she may not even realize what she has is an "eating disorder" She says she's been that weight for 4 years so her period has probably stopped a long time ago and hence she probably already has oteopenia..or reduced bone density. And of course she says that she would want to gain 5 lbs..a bigger but...she needs to gain a hell of alot more than 5 pounds..and not just so she has a bigger butt..but to actually be able to live a healthy life. Most people with an ED (eating disorder) can't really see themselves as they are. HEr eating habits are proably "normal" to her because she is so used to them. All of those girls are so afraid of fat...stupid girls. I also find it hypocritical that in one part the trainer tells michelle how bad it is that she is that weight and then the next minute she gets praised....who the hell do you think she is going to listen to?

The frustrating thing is that the more people comment on her weight the more it will fuel her desire to stay that weight. They should throw her on the show "Intervention" and then chronicle her recovery. Then again, maybe this is what she wants. I mean, they want to be models so she wants this attention..it's sick but it could be true. It's all part of the sickness, everything feeds it. I just know that it is the wrong msg for people watching.

Not that I'm mean...but she looked horrible in that lingerie...and her teeth..don't get me started...not that we should judge her..b/c we are all beautiful and beauty is in the eye of the beholder...but I guess if you can't be pretty you gotta be skinny to be a model....

"Amen" to all these posts. As a naturally skinny person, I know when skinny starts to border on unhealthy. When I was these girls' ages, I was 5'10" and about 125 lbs. People kept telling me to get into modeling, so I dropped by a couple of agencies in the L.A. area. Being a teenager, I naturally still had a kiddish face (i.e., no prominent cheekbones like you develop as your face matures through your 20s). The agencies' response: try to drop just a few pounds to give my cheekbones more pronouncement. Luckily, I had a mother who squashed that idea right away. Besides, I was very focused on academics.

Michelle is very obviously sick. I hit 5'8" around 15 years old, had no boobs, and had not started menstruating yet. (I was a VERY late bloomer.) And even I weighed about 115-120 lbs at that age! No doubt about it, Michelle is literally starving. Meanwhile, Lucia is the MOST BEAUTIFUL of the bunch! Don't we all wish we were so gorgeous?!

Funny thing, too. Now that I'm in my 30s and am about 10 lbs heavier than I was as a teen, I actually wish I were even a little fuller still! I fear that I'm eventually going to be a gnarled, bony old lady rather that a cuddly grandma. I'd much rather be a little plumper as I age and fill out my wrinkles a bit. In another 10 or 20 years, these girls will realize that stick-thin isn't all it's cracked up to be!

PS - They never seem to mention that Petra looks healthy and quite voluptuous, and the photographer isn't telling her to drop weight! Ugh!

HI...i am 5'7" and weigh 105 lbs. I am sick and tired of all you guys and the show getting mad at Michelle. She might be skinny, but some of us have a really really hard time gaining weight. I have tried everything and the only thing that actually helped was to get on birth control and even then, I only gained 5 lbs. My mother was 98 lbs when she was 21 and did not have an eating disorder...sometimes people are just flat out skinny!!

As a 3rd year medical student, I KNOW that BMI is not useful! It isnt useful for those who are really skinny or really obese. My BMI is 17.5 which, by most, is considered to be very underweight. I eat like a hog and have had blood tests and would u believe it? IM HEALTHY!!!

I have been looked at as though I had an eating disorder for years even though I am perfectly happy with my weight and the way I look. Don't get me wrong, I think that the other models are perfect and don't need to lose weight, but for goodness sake...Lay off the skinny girl!!!

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Hello, just wanted to chime in on what's being said here. As most of you have declared that you think Michelle 'has some sort of problem' have you ever heard of High Metabolism? It exists, because in my young age I too grappled with it. Between seventh and eighth grades I weighed 90lbs. I shared a painfully awkward existence that paralleled that of a young *fat* girl. I was terribly embarassed of my skinny/lanky body and tried my hardest to hide it. I ate everything I could get my hands on, including stacks of Oreos and Chocolate/Banana malts. Nothing worked...until I grew up and my metabolism shifted to a more moderate one. My point is that there are situations with our bodies that we don't have complete control of, until sometime in life up ahead, we even out.

I totally agree...this whole entire weight issue has got to stop...why bring in a trainer/nutritionist to advise the girls to be a healthy weight and eat healthy, only to later tell Michelle (who looks like a concentration camp victim) that she has a beautiful body and Lucia needs to "tone" up...give me a break...Michelle looks ghastly and malnutrition...her body and general appearance does not look healthy nor attractive in any way shape or form...her cheek bones are high because all she has is skin draped over them, her sunken in eyes...ugh... I fail to believe that she eats enough and is healthy...she can be a beautiful girl, she just needs to eat something or more of it...

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In response to the comments about having a high metabolism, yes, I and many others have heard of it. In fact, my sister has a very high metabolism and I, too, have seen her eat "like a hog" as someone put it earlier. Having a high metabolism is not something you can control as has been said, but how you fuel your body is. I've seen my sister woof down 4 donuts at a sitting, lots of cookies, fries, ice cream and plenty of other low value food when it comes to what your body needs to function properly. She gains very little weight. I may be heavier than she is (still well within normal guidelines), but I am much more thoughful about what I eat - protein, vegetables, fruits, items containing omega-3, high fiber (colon cancer runs in our family so even though my sister is very thin, her diet does nothing to help her take steps to do what she can to avoid colon cancer). As a result, I don't suffer from some of the health issues she does and my blood tests, etc. show that I have much better levels of HDL and much lower levels of LDL than she does. A bad diet, even if you stay thin, harms your body. Plaque is plaque and when it is in your heart (and thin people get it too and drop over dead at the gym - you hear about it every so often), your heart isn't checking to see if people can see your cheekbones or not.
My concerns with Michelle are not totally with her but with the conflicting message that was being sent to viewers that evening. She, after being told that she was not healthy (and she had said that what she ate that day consisted of cereal and fries and she refused to use the protein powder the trainer left for her and only took some of the vitamins so she is deliberately choosing not to try to improve her health no matter those tears that come later and the claims that she tries "everything" - I don't think so since she trashed the protein powder that was recommended)gets told by the people from NEXT that she was doing great reinforcing the idea that she should keep doing what she is doing - not taking care of herself. Meanwhile, they tell Lucia that she is fat excuse me "not toned" properly after she has been told that she is healthy. It is just like mom telling the teenaged girl that she looks fine only to have her friends tell her she is fat and needs to lose weight. Who will she listen to? Who do adult women listen to? I mean, HELLO, the diet industry is huge.
So, high metabolism or not, that is no excuse for not taking care of yourself and Michelle is blatantly not doing that (as seen by her actions on the show)and then gets rewarded for it with a contract - yeah, as others have already noted in other forums, she gets one of the contracts. Her picture is online with NEXT (and they actually have her dressed in this gothic robe - very dark looking pictures.)OH, well, the industry is what it is, I just wish they would not have Petra on there speaking about staying healthy when the agency isn't on the same page. They made their own spokesperson look foolish.

Yes, it is possible to have a very high metabolism but it doesn't seem to be the case here. True we don't see the whole picture but I'm guessing that if we saw her food diary, there would not be very much there. Having a low BMI...like 17.5 is much different than a BMI of 15. You can't naturally be that low and be healthy. If her diet were healthy, she would not look grey and ghastly. I, myself have a super low BMI, but I eat well and exercise. People also comment on me all the time but I know the truth. With that said, we can always give people the benefit of the doubt. I guess all we can do is speculate. Still I think that Ptera should comment on this because she DESERVES to be under fire for this if Michelle does have a problem.

I am a guy and i completely agree with you girls. My gilrfriend was watching the show when I came in and I agree with you all that Lucia is by far the best looking while I find Michelle a little scarey(vampirish). I would much rather see Lucia win than one of the other stick figures.

I watched two episodes tonight, the nutrition one for the second time. I am utterly horrified to learn that Michelle gets a contract!! The show couldn't go against the stylists and photographers who make the choices. Looking at some of the fall runway phtos, the girls continue to look starved, most with the saddest-looking little twig legs.....
I adore petra, but it's looking like she's made no progress in Haute Couture Malnutrition.

Sorry, folks, but I don't buy the "Michelle is healthy" line at all. Having been a twiggy teenager w/a best friend who was even twiggier at the time, I assert that nobody 5'8" should ever weigh 100 lbs under normal circumstances. A skinny & healthy 5'8" person could possibly weigh ~110 lbs (like my best friend did), and perhaps a bout of cholera or chemotherapy could make the person **temporarily** drop to 100, but that would NOT last.

The orbits of her eyes are purple and dark, and she refuses to take the protein powder, instead choosing only to swallow the vitamins. (Did you notice how she overreacted with a disgusted gag when she she took the pills to indicate her dislike?) I've known too many people w/eating disorders not to recognize the signs.

My biggest chastisement of the show, actually, is *not* how they're treating Lucia, but how the producers are using Michelle. I'm sure it heightens ratings in a perverse/voyeuristic sense when people tune in each week just to see if the sickly one is still anorexic. Just like professional athletes, these girls are seen as nothing more than bodies by their employers, used for profit by corporations and sponsors. (That's not an indictment of Petra herself; it's just the way the business is.) Only the ones who go in knowing what they're getting into, with good heads on their shoulders, will avoid being taken advantage of.

O come on get over it! I think everyone needs to realize that it's going to happen whether or not this show was even on the air and that people should be in charge of themselves and let them be. If they want to lose weight to get modeling jobs so be it!!!! Yes I do believe that anorexia and bullemia are terrible sicknesses. But they are sicknesses!!! they are not things just chose to do one day. There is always a cause to those things like problems at home or school or jobs. I think that if you want to be successful in what ever you do you need to set a goal whether it is losing weight or not and go for it but not go over board so just leave this topic alone!

I completely agree. Get over it. The agency that the model works for is there to have them become successful, they will tell a model to lose weight if that's what it takes for her to make more money for them; it's not mean it's just the industry. As long as the model has a good head on her shoulders she wont become anorexic or get into stupid stuff like that.
This isnt a plus model life its a model life, and what they tell her isnt in the normal world its the modelling world. If you dont like how the show tells the girls they are too big give your head a shake it happens every day, thats modelling for you.

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Sorry, but getting over it is not a solution to an obvious problem in the fashion industry. These images impact women and to ignore that is reckless. A goal to be healthy- not to fit a delusional size- 0- for an industry. Oh, and people, like yourselves are entitled to their opinions just as much as those who differ from yours.

Those two reps from Next are terrible and critical. The way they rip those girls apart is disgusting. I've never seen such judgemental losers.

[quote]This isnt a plus model life its a model life[/quote]

You're actually refering to these beautiful girls as plus size models. What the heck is wrong with you. No one should have to take that kind of abuse in their career.

UUUUUGGGGHHHH is right! All of you knee jerk whiners give humankind a bad name. And the so-called trainer who thinks he can judge a persons health with a BMI, and insinuate Michelle has an eating disorder without studying her eating habits and physical activity, is an unprofessional jerk.
Wake up losers, eating until you are full and then stopping, is not an eating disorder! The only way to gain weight (the only way it is biologically possible) is to take in more calories than you burn. Of course, the only way you can lose weight is to do the opposite. I just thought I'd throw that in, as the IQ levels seem to be averaging a bit low out there. By the way, there are people who have not enlarged their stomachs by overeating, have high metabolisms when they are young, and do a lot of physical activity. It's all perfectly normal. Get over it!