Claim:   Photographs show a series of skeletal models.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2006]

You Think Fat Is Ugly? Well!!! After seeing these I think I'll keep my fat

Origins:   A good many people hold the viewpoint that the world's top models are slender not only beyond the point of attractiveness, but even beyond the point of healthfulness. This feeling was reinforced by the recent deaths of 22-year-old Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, who succumbed to heart failure during a fashion show in August 2006, and 21-year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, who passed away in November 2006 from multiple organ failure. Both deaths were attributed to the effects of anorexia. (When Ana Reston entered a hospital in October 2006, she stood 5'7" but weighed a mere 88 lbs.)

Although the models pictured above would probably (when viewed in unaltered photographs) be described by most people as "skinny," they aren't quite as skeletal as they appear to be in those photos, which are images of already-slender models that have been digitally manipulated to give the women shockingly emaciated appearances.

Displayed below are some of the original photographs as they appeared before alteration:

Last updated:   26 November 2006

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2013 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  

---

  Sources:

    CNN.com.   "Model Dies of Anorexia Complications."

    17 November 2006.

    People.   "Anorexia Takes a Life."

    4 December 2006   (p. 120).