“beautiful”

Video: Define

by Milana Ilickovic and Katelyn Powers

different, all successful. Campbell is a black model, Delevingne is a pansexual model, and Wasley is a plus-size model. Campbell has proven that the life of a model is hard, considering she struggled with substance abuse in the past. She claimed it was easy to keep up with drugs, having the life of a model, and becoming especially addicted to cocaine. Wasley has issues of her own with her body image and overcoming an eating disorder and dealing with rapidly losing large amounts of weight. She decided to disrupt this cycle and eventually landed in Sports Illustrated magazine. Delevingne, who came out as pansexual in 2017, revealed that when she was younger she suffered from depression and anxiety because she hadn’t grown up with any icons like her to look up to. Becoming a model made her mental health matters worse. There would be fewer stories like these in the modeling industry if the world of fashion was a more inclusive place, to begin with.

“Companies are making great strides in how they market to a diverse population. Target is a great example. When walking around their store, the models are real women with curves and visible cellulite.

This normalizes our differences and shows us that everyone is beautiful, just as they are,” Packer said. Diversity is a refreshing breath of air, emerging from the previous one-way industry.

Today’s fashion world is more modern than in the older decades, and there are more opportunities for all kinds of women to model and advertise their natural beauty. “Being beautiful is not limited to physical appearance. There is nothing more beautiful than someone who is kind, caring, compassionate, joyful, and accepting of others. Real beauty comes from within,” Packer said. “Beautiful” holds a wide range of meanings to many different people, which is why there isn’t just one exemplar of beauty anymore.

“It’s all about feeling our best and putting our best selves out there, there is nothing more comfortable than our own skin,” Jackson said. Confidence is very important and one trait that helps natural beauty to glow with radiance. “Beautiful is an idea. That’s all really beautiful can be, like an undermining of someone’s being,” Hollifield said.

by Milana Ilickovic

We have made it far as a society since 1950, but there is still room for today’s models to be more diverse. “Even if it isn’t pressured by anyone else. It’s just the media. The TV shows and movies. Whether it be from body hair, how tall you are, what you dress, your skin color, your weight. There’s so many factors that lead into self-hatred, which I guess is the ultimate standard,” Hollifield said. Many media platforms in the past and today are guilty of only showing the tall, skinny stereotypes, which sparks unhealthy habits of comparison. “There are still a lot more different bodies to show like you can show shorter people, you can show taller people, you can show curvier people,” Bray said. Although more diverse models are occupying runways, there is still much rejection and discrimination toward women like transgender women who want to model. These aren’t the only women being rejected from runways. “I’m not sure that we’ll ever grow out of fatphobia or different kinds of prejudice like that. I mean, I hope we will, but unfortunately, I don’t see it in the short future,” Hollifield said. Even as the eyes of fashion are switching perspectives, it will take some time to get the world to see the beauty of all kinds.