The recent news that so-called heroin chic is back in vogue on the catwalk was met with waves of disgust on social media. "No. No. F*ck this," TV presenter Jameela Jamil wrote on Instagram.
And body confidence influencer Izzie Rodgers said: "Your body is NOT a trend and we certainly are NOT going back to 'heroin chic' as long as I’m bloody alive." The furious reactions came after a New York Post article headlined 'Bye-bye booty: Heroin chic is back', seemingly welcomed the return of 'size zero'.
Unsurprisingly, concerns have since been raised about the potential impact on young girls, and particularly those suffering, or at risk of, eating disorders. But Jane Kenyon is the founder of social enterprise Girls Out Loud and works with young girls in schools up and down the country, said the news is unlikely to have a profound impact, without "a massive push".
However, it all promotes the "dangerous rhetoric" - that our bodies are not our own, she said, adding: "Who is deciding that this is the next trend? And where is their responsibility for the lives that they are going to lose and the mental health issues they are going to cause?
"There's nothing wrong with people who are naturally skinny, who are naturally athletic. But there are not people that are naturally underweight. That's dangerous."
Body dysmorphia, low self-esteem and feelings of ‘not being enough’ is one of the biggest issues they see in school girls, said Jane. And she believes it is mainly men at the top of the fashion industry promoting unnatural body shapes for women.
"How, in 2022, certain industries feel it is appropriate to glamorise drug addiction, telling girls and women of all ages that looking unwell is the new beautiful, asking us to change our bodies to fit their standards, is incredibly worrying indeed," she said. "I am yet to see the fashion industry asking boys and men to do the same.
"These fashion industries have been exposed about this time and time and time again. And don't do anything about it."
Jane believes, while curvy has been seen as the trend in recent years, the catwalk industry has never really changed from the 1990s when the emaciated look was considered in vogue. Mainstream catwalk models and those used by fast fashion labels "are still painfully thin", she said.
But Jane also said these "unhealthy" images it promotes, are the least of her concerns when it comes to the self-image problems she sees in young girls. Most girls want to look like Kim Kardashian, rather than a thin catwalk model, she says.
"In the grand scheme of things to worry about, this is my least worrying one," she said. "In my work with girls I still see they more want to look like Kim Kardashian than underweight.
"The fact that there are catwalk models who look like they've just woke up out of a drug induced whatever is not really hitting them. The skinny 90s look is not really catching on, not with the girls I work with.
"It's actually the skinny ones who are the girls with the biggest body issues. Having thin models is just the tip of the iceberg.
"It's what they're watching on Insta, it's what coming at them from the porn industry.
"They want to look like porn Barbie. What really hits them is the Insta-body that's in all the porn industry and gaming technology that boys are watching. And the boys want big boobs because that's what the porn industry is all about."
Jane's team runs programmes for girls from year nine, teaching and supporting them on a variety of issues affecting them including misogyny in school, toxic friendships and relationship boundaries. And it starts much earlier than many would think, she said.
"When they get into secondary, all this stuff comes at them," she said. "The 12 to 14 age group are talking about having boob jobs. They want tiny waists and big boobs.
"The brands that they are focusing on are fast fashion and if you look at the billboards it's all about boobs, a flat stomach, being tanned, big hair, big lips, massive eyes. It's that kind of doll look that they are going for and they don't realise the amount of lighting, airbrushing and photoshopping that they use."
And tackling the issue is not straightforward, she said. "We can't suddenly decide that we will stop social media, we can't suddenly take phones off girls or put porn back on the top shelf."
She also believes women have a responsibility to educate and reassure young girls. "If you think about it, we're doing the same as them - always beating ourselves up about not looking young enough, worried about wrinkles, rushing off to get Botox," she said.
"They see our values as being in the way we look - of course they are going to copy us. All of this is going to keep coming in different guises and we can't put any of it back in the box.
"We have to teach girls you are more than what you see reflected back in the mirror. We've got to empower them to say no to it."
