As today’s generation becomes more and more obsessed about appearance, there were two stories this week that brought a welcome antidote to this world of unrealistic role models.
The BBC reported how 93-year-old Ilona Royce Smithkin has become a model for the first time, after being spotted by a photographer in New York.
Smithkin is part of an advertising campaign for Karen Walker Eyewear, who told the BBC: “We didn’t set out to make a statement about age. We wanted to make a statement about optimism. The unanimously exuberant reaction from our younger customers has been that they’re inspired and they want to be just like these women when they get to that age.”
Smithkin herself has been thoroughly enjoying her new role. She said: “When I was younger I always worried how I looked, whether people liked me. Now I really like myself, and I’m using my creative side even more than a few years ago.”
Meanwhile, toy company Mattel is moving away from its traditional Barbie doll to promote a more realistic-shaped American Girl doll range.
A recent study found that if a real person had the same dimensions as a Barbie doll, she would have to crawl on all fours to get around because her wrists and ankles would be so skinny. She would not be able to lift her head because her neck would be too thin and she would only have room in her body for half a liver and a few inches of intestine.
So, yes, let’s have more normal-sized role models out there for our young people and more 93-year-old women showing them how to be confident about their own bodies.