The skinny on the magazine model

Ed's been putting a lot of thought lately into how the lady magazines portray women's bodies. Have you noticed how more and more of the high-end fashion titles like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, now have coverlines that read "beautiful at any size" or "the best clothes for every body type?" Used to be that only the health mags or mags that focus on the "every girl" like Glamour had such declarations of self-love on their covers. Ed thinks this a great step forward, especially considering that young girls often grow up with these glossies. BUT when the coverlines are going in such a positive direction, why is there such little change actually inside the magazine?

For the most part, those gorgeous girls in the fall fashion features are still just that—girls. Young girls and still at least four sizes smaller than the average American woman. And don't even get Ed started on the amount of retouching that goes into covers to slim down whatever curves that month's Hollywood starlet actually does have.

Perhaps a "streamlined" cover girl does sell issues, and maybe thin models do sell clothes. (Who doesn't like to look at beautiful people?!) But do you think it's the public's own fault for buying into the skinny ideal or do you think it's up to the industry to start featuring real size women in its fashion features? What do you think, Edsters? Venting welcome!

—Ed

Did you ever doubt that you have what it takes?

Ed is confident and all, but sometimes—just like everyone—he questions his abilities. With tons of magazines and newspapers out there that he admires, he’d love to write for them all—naturally, since he’s a print (and website) junkie.

But since every title has its own tone and style, and Ed has his own style, he wonders if he’d be able to work at some prestigious titles or have enough wittiness to be funny at a certain weekly he adores.

This came about when he was having dinner with a good friend and commenting on how much he loved x magazine. The friend responded, “Why don’t you try to work there?”

Though we all know it’s not that easy to just “work there” in our industry, Ed didn’t correct his friend (who is so lucky to be in the marketing world) and looked past that snafu and onto the bigger picture: Could he work at that title?

Did he have what it takes to be funny, snarky, sarcastic, and creative on another level day in and day out? He is a funny guy if he does say so himself, but for one of the first time in years, Ed questioned himself.

Edsters, does this ever happen to you? Do you ever feel like you may not have a certain attitude, tone, or style that would fit one of your highly-admired titles?