They will argue that clothes look better on a thin, tall person according to age, and that children are naturally thin like a beanpole in a way than older people. However, this serious industry with high work demands will raise pressure on children and it really is not a trivial problem while children tend to feel depressed. Children should enjoy their childhood without worrying about their physical appearance or even criticized on what they're look like. Growing children should not represent the ideal beauty style for greater public consumption.
As a public figure especially as a model, your sale value is on your appearance. A child model must always wear make up every time they go on runway or on a camerawork. They start to realize that cosmetic make them look prettier and then their new fascination is by applying cosmetic. On the other hand, cosmetics are not suitable for children due to high level of heavy metal contents, even for adults continuous use of cosmetic can result in many chronic diseases such as skin cancer.
In order to look better, child models are required to wear high heels. Unconsciously, the intensity of wearing high heels becomes frequent. Based on orthopedic science, the appropriate time for someone to start wearing high heels is when she is between 14-16 years old. When you're wearing high heels, your muscles will be working really hard. Imagine if a six-year-old child whose muscles are still developing wears high heels, she is putting unusual fatigue on it.
Many reports shows that agency contracts do not allow child models to gain weight. For example, measured from the size of the hips, a child model is not supposed to have hips size two centimeters more than the required size stated on the contract. That is absolutely a big problem for child model. They tend to have an eating disorder. Children need a range of nutrients because their body is still developing and shouldn't be pressured to have the build of adolescent. Some young models take the modeling job not because they are passionate to do this, but because they are forced by parents. Psychologists say some parents see their children as extensions of themselves, rather than as separate people with their own hopes and dreams. It is proven that parents most likely want their children to achieve their unrequited ambitions when they were younger. These kind of pushy parents make their children chase their lost dreams, regardless what the children really want.
Many young models do not understand their rights and how to respond to a contract wisely. Too often, we see child models who are catapulted into working as adults. And they don't have the maturity to handle these situations. Many agencies offers a promising contract that they will have a long lasting career. To fulfill the contract agreement, many child models sacrifice their childhood and even many of them have to quit school. With a tight schedule and no school schedule, many of these young models are used by agency as a money machine.
Child models often hear people in this industry say “I’m here to make money, I want you to make money…”. There's no one to blame when these child models are treated as adults. Sooner or later, the agency make the child models, who are easily influenced, become money oriented. Instead of choosing what camerawork they’re comfortable with, they more concern on how much money they will get by this offer. It is a public secret that young models are often asked to take their off their clothes. That is no longer a command, but they are like : “If you don't do it, then we're not going to book you for a job again”. That is a huge burden for children to do something by force, and nobody takes care of them mentally. It is not only the children's mental that becomes the problem but a distorting between sexual imagery and fashion and the models who have to negotiate with the agency are too young and fear of speaking out.
The modeling business today is unstructured and just depends on a compliant labor force of children. Sexual abuse and systematic theft occur at the highest levels of the industry; and because the models are considered to be independent workers, the rule of law in terms of workplace standard does not exist. What is worse, in an industry where the majority of models are still categorized as children, most of them work far from home and without being accompanied by parents with the incentive to say nothing in order to keep you’re the job. This creates an unacceptable environment of coercion.
The marketing industry is forcing tweens, children who want to be teens but aren't quite old enough yet, and treat them like teenagers. The industry discovers there's lots of money from made. The marketing industry forces tweens to grow up quickly. In the Year 2000 Report to Congress, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) raised concerns on how Hollywood was routinely recruiting tweens to star in their ads, in which the ideas of this ad usually against that of parents. Even in industrialized societies, where the governments and campaigners fight for better child advertising standards and regulations, industry fights back preferring self-regulation by utilizing child models.
To summarize, we can conclude that fashion industry has no place for children. It's a highly pressured job with certain age group of workers, There is a lot of misunderstanding in the public about the world of fashion, glamor and promising life especially for children's future, because people can only see the cover from this industry. When they conceptualize models, most people only see that visibility while ignoring the possible irregularities that might be experienced by children. However, since this industry is in the name of arts, the irregularities in children fashion industry are seen as acceptable.
By: Safira Faris
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