Living on rice cakes, fruit and water

Once upon a time, Twiggy was an oddity. Today, the figures fashionable in our culture are even thinner, with most Hollywood stars weighing far below what defines starvation. Few children, young people and adults, however, realize these thin bodies are unnaturally thin and achieved through extremely unhealthy means.

The Sun talked with model Tarryn Meaker this past week to learn what really happens behind-the-scenes of fashion. Meaker is now a healthy size 16 and “loves her body.” She revealed: “The fashion trade is riddled with drug addiction, manipulative agencies and eating disorders:”

“I don’t know how much I weighed at my lowest, but when I look at the pictures now I was really skinny. I look ill. At the time I was looking in the mirrors and seeing fat. As well as not eating I was taking handfuls of diet pills — most have been banned now because they are so dangerous. Every time I ate too much, I would take more pills. Of course my health suffered...”

“There was a procession of people telling me, ‘You’re fat,’ ‘Your skin’s bad’ or ‘You’re ugly.’ As a teenager just learning about myself and my body, it was crushing...”

“I have lived and worked with fashion models all over the world, and it’s a mess. I saw models on strange diets, drugs, coffee and cigarettes . . . all the clichés are clichés because they are true. The turning point for me was reading all about myself in a college book. I was studying psychology and when I read a description of a textbook bulimic I realised I was reading about me.”

“It wasn’t as easy as turning a switch off because controlling what I ate had become such a part of my life. But I re-prioritised and now I am just enjoying the job without obsessing about what I look like. I’m still working and am so much happier now — and there’s no price you can put on that.”