Real Woman Campaign

The approach of Black Friday means we are inundated with commercials showing all the insanely good deals that we will be able to get. Something I've been noticing this year is that the models in all of the commercials look so small! I am a small person and I am not incredibly judgmental of other small girls. I like being small and I can understand other girls wanting to be small. But there are a few commercials this year that have just blown my mind in terms of how small the models are.

I know I've talked about Victoria's Secret before and I'm going to mention them again: their holiday commercial makes me feel scared for the girls in it. They are tiny. Their knees and collarbones are just sticking out there and you can see their hipbones and ribs through their skin. It really freaked me out because I was anorexic for years and these girls have no way of getting that small while staying healthy.

Kohl's has a commercial out for their weekend sales and the models are so tiny! They're in clothing, but they are gaunt and they look like stick figures. There is a little girl in the commercial, too, and she's also incredibly small.

What are we teaching our kids, especially our girls? That being small means you're pretty and sexy and guys will want you? That's pretty much all I'm seeing.

I think it would be smarter to use real women in commercials. Think about it: how often do you see something on a model, think it's beautiful, you go buy it, and it looks completely different on you? That happens to me all the time! Yes, I'm small, but I'm also short, which means that what I see on the models doesn't look the same when I put it on. We should realize that 35% of America is obese and even those of us who aren't obese don't look like models. Models aren't realistic when it comes to showing us what clothes will look like on our bodies.

This year, if I buy a piece of clothing, I'm going to take a picture of myself in it and send it to the store I bought it from so they can see what it looks like on a real person. We all should do this! Please join me in the "Real Woman Campaign: Showing Retailers Reality" and send your pictures in. We won't get anything changed unless we push to make it change. Let's show the reality of the situation; be real women and show the reality!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi