Thin Is In

I think it is safe to say that Ugly Betty will be one of the most hyped TV shows of the year. As well as TV adverts, reviews in newspapers and magazines, we were treated to images of the adorable Betty on the cover (front and back) on the Friday issue of The London Paper.'Well I am pleased to say that the show lived up to the hype and 'Ugly Betty' is now the new 'must-see' show. Who needs Desperate Housewives when we have a protagonist who is smart, sharp and sweet. This show is the TV version of The Devil Wears Prada but without the makeover. Set in the image and size obsessed offices of Mode magazine, the bible of the fashion industry, Betty sticks out like a sore thumb with her thick glasses (I can identify with those massive frames), braces, chubby frame and unfashionable clothes. However, our Betty has her sights set on working for Meade Publishing and she shows a lot of verve when she goes for an interview at the company. Despite being fobbed off by the jerk from HR she is undetered and sets out to prove her worth. Lucky for her, Bradford Meade, founder of the company spots her and she is offered the role as assistant to the Editor. As nepotism has it the Editor of Mode magazine is in fact Daniel Meade, son of Bradford who is a total womaniser but completly hapless when it comes to magazines or any kind of work. I don't think it takes a genius to work out that Betty is far from ugly and as soon as she whips off those glasses and braces you will see how totally gorgeous she is. Still the show is compelling to watch and America Ferrera is amazing as Betty. I saw her in a film she made a few years ago called, Real Women Have Curves and she was real class. Vanessa Williams is scarily convincing as the evil, Whilhelmina Slater and it is wonderful to see former 'Neighbours' and 'The OC' star, Alan Dale playing Bradford. If you were a fan of the film, 'The Devil Wears Prada' (not the book as that was lousy) then you will totally love 'Ugly Betty.'

On the subject of looks last night I was watching a programme on Living TV about skinny celebrities and the trend to be ultra thin. Since the whole size Zero thing blew up last autumn during London Fashion Week, skinny celebrities have seldom been out of the news. I am a size 10 and when I look at myself in the mirror I think I look great but could do with a bit of padding out, so someone who is a size eight must be tiny so what does that say about ladies who are a size six or below? You have to be very ill to even be anywhere near a size Zero which in the UK translation is a size FOUR!! How can anyone in their right mind think that looks good? I think Nicole Ritchie and Victoria Beckham look awful. Now we have this scary trend of these websites that are set up to celebrate being super skinny (I won't name them for obvious reasons) but they act as a community for young women whose aim is to be thin as hell and endorse methods such as anorexia and bulmina. This issue was featured on the BBC last Friday and as not eating is a secretive thing anyway, these websites make these women feel like they are part of an exclusive club. It is frightening and if I had a daughter or a little sister I would be petrified. The only thing we can do is to encourage women to love themselves and have a healthy body image.Picture from Ugly Betty website. The fact is that a majority of the successful fashion designers are male and they design for young boys not women and god forbid women with curves. So take this scenario you are a 17 year old model who is a size 10 and you put on a dress that you cannot get over your hips, tell me that is not going to give you a complex. So what do you do? You try and lose weight. Then there are the women's magazines whose main aim is to make you feel bad about yourself so you can buy into the products they advertise. What makes me sick and is that all of the women's magazines in the UK are edited by women yet they enforce this myth about being skinny by featuring thin and gauntless models.