23-year-old UK-based model Charlie Howard has been relatively successful, appearing in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour and Cosmopolitan. However, despite her success, stunning features, and tiny frame, she has recently been dropped from her (unnamed) agency who told her that her size and skin were a problem.
Rightfully so, Howard did not take this gently and penned an open letter on her Facebook page expressing her anger and disgust with the industry.
“I refuse to feel ashamed and upset on a daily basis for not meeting your ridiculous, unattainable beauty standards,” wrote Howard –– who just so happens to be the U.S. equivalent to a size 2. “The more you force us to lose weight and be small, the more designers have to make clothes to fit our sizes, and the more young girls are being made ill. It’s no longer an image I choose to represent.”
Howard has been modeling since she was 17, but she refuses to conform to agencies’ ridiculous standards anymore.
“I am proud of the jobs I have done. I will continue to do it, but only on my own terms,” her letter continues. “My mental and physical health [are] of more importance than a number on a scale.”
In an interview with Dazed, Howard said that her agency dropped her the day before she penned the letter. “They said they “appreciated” how much I’d tried to keep my weight down, but that my body and skin were a problem,” she said. (Seriously, wtf!?)
Howard does believe that the industry is changing, but the back-and-forth between promoting and condemning uniqueness has to stop.
“Models like Winnie Harlow and Ashley Graham are killing it right now, so why are agencies not representing more non-white or curvaceous models? They clearly work,” Howard said. “They’re bright, intelligent and striking women with a voice. If that’s the current beauty ‘ideal’, let’s encourage that.”
Howard encourages girls everywhere to love their bodies and to realize that beauty is not defined by being stick-thin.
“If you’re unhappy, choose happiness,” she said. “Life’s too short.”
