Leading fashion magazine Vogue is calling on the industry to stop hiring models under the age of 18. And they’re leading the way by refusing to book underage models for the magazine. Vogue and the CFDA announced that they will no longer book models under 18 in an effort to make the fashion industry less exploitative. In an article in the September issue announcing the move, Maya Singer explains that the fashion industry has developed an unhealthy cycle of hiring young, vulnerable models who will fit tiny sample sizes, failing to give them adequate support for the pressures and temptation (drugs, alcohol) they’ll face, then dumping them once they’ve grown too large for sizing that’s supposedly marketed at adult women. This is damaging to the young models themselves, who all too often face long, exhausting hours, pressure to undertake extreme diets, and exploitation of their lack of knowledge of the industry, and to fashion lovers who are subconsciously told that the beauty ideal is someone underage. ‘No more: It’s not right for us, it’s not right for our readers, and it’s not right for the young models competing to appear in these pages,’ writes Maya. ‘While we can’t rewrite the past, we can commit to a better future.’ Published in Daily Times, August 18th 2018.