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9 Models on the Pressure to Lose Weight and Body Image | The Models | Vogue

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Vogue puts nine models in front of the camera to say what the industry rarely lets them say out loud.

Vogue’s digital documentary series “The Models” released its third installment in July 2019, titled “9 Models on the Pressure to Lose Weight and Body Image.” The episode gathers models spanning generations and body categories — Ashley Graham, Adut Akech, Carolyn Murphy, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Hailey Bieber, Halima Aden, Jill Kortleve, Joan Smalls and Paloma Elsesser — to talk plainly about measurements, agency notes, and the toll of chasing an industry ideal. It’s the same series that’s been chipping away at fashion’s polished exterior one episode at a time, and this installment goes straight at eating disorders, size discrimination and the physical control models say still governs their bookings.

• Ashley Graham says she’s still pressured by agencies and clients to slim down and tone up despite building her career as a pioneering plus-size model at a size 16.
• Adut Akech describes struggling with body dysmorphia and the pull of Eurocentric beauty standards after entering the European runway circuit as a young model.
• Hanne Gaby Odiele details being intersex and undergoing surgery meant to “normalize” her body, a decision that left her with lifelong medical complications and body-confidence struggles.

Graham on Being Judged by the Tape Measure

Graham has spent over a decade as one of the faces of size inclusivity in fashion, and she’s blunt about how little that’s shielded her from scrutiny. In the episode, she recalls being told to lose weight and tone up even as brands were building campaigns around her curves, describing the sensation of feeling like she was never quite enough no matter the numbers on the scale. It’s a contradiction she’s flagged before — celebrated publicly for representing bigger bodies while privately fielding the same notes given to any other model walking into a fitting.

Akech and Murphy on Perfection’s Price Tag

Akech, who signed with IMG and quickly became one of the most in-demand faces on the European circuit, talks about grappling with body dysmorphia as a young woman navigating an industry built around a narrow, largely white template of beauty. She also discusses shaving her head as an act of reclaiming her own image rather than letting the industry define it for her.

Carolyn Murphy, a veteran of the business with decades on runways and in campaigns, turns the conversation toward social media — the newer front in the same old pressure. She describes how constant digital scrutiny and the pursuit of aesthetic perfection online compound the psychological weight models already carry from castings and fittings, turning every post into another measurement.

Graham says she still hears the same note agencies gave her at the start of her career: lose weight, tone up — regardless of what her body actually looks like now.

Odiele’s Story on Bodily Autonomy

Odiele’s segment is the episode’s most physically direct. She recounts growing up intersex and undergoing surgery intended to “normalize” her body — a procedure that left her with medical complications she’s dealt with into adulthood. Her reflections in the episode connect her personal history to a broader point about bodily autonomy in an industry that has long treated models’ bodies as adjustable inventory rather than something requiring consent.

The Numbers Fashion Doesn’t Advertise

The episode leans on findings that have circulated for years inside the industry: the vast majority of working models report agency pressure to lose weight, underweight BMIs are common on the runway, and unhealthy weight-loss mandates routinely surface at fittings before shows. Bieber, Aden, Kortleve, Smalls and Elsesser round out the nine voices, touching on weight-shaming rumors, hijab representation, anxiety’s physical effects, and the slow shift toward a broader definition of what a runway body can look like. None of it is presented as solved — the episode frames these accounts as models using their platforms to push for structural change rather than declaring victory over it.

This is episode three of four in Vogue’s “The Models” series, meaning there’s one more installment still to land after this one — and given how directly this episode goes after agency practices and body standards, whatever closes the series out has a lot to live up to.