As the summer season approaches, the typical internet or television screen is flooded with ads of models flaunting the latest fashion trends. But all too often, these models look as though they have eating disorders. In fact, most runway models today, measured against the criteria for Body Mass Index, qualify as anorexic.

So the question arises: are “real” models a thing of the past?

Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23 percent less. A size 6 is now considered “plus size” in the fashion world.

But not everyone is okay with this: Vogue Magazine recently banned the use of too-skinny models in May of 2012, declaring that “too thin is no longer in.” In Israel, a law was passed that models must maintain a healthy body mass index of 18 to help promote health and fitness rather than anorexia and other dangerous eating disorders.

But of course it is the business of both fashion and its models to represent fantasy, and even plus-size versions are regularly digitally altered. These models also have their skin smoothed, their waist and thigh size decreased and their many human imperfections, from cellulite to skin blemishes, fully erased long before their image ever gets plastered on the billboards or magazine covers.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the average weight of a woman 20 or older is 165 pounds; she has a 37-inch waist and is a size 14. The average model is a size 0, and has around a 22-inch waist.  If these clothing companies are trying to market their clothing to the average person, then logic says use an average sized model, right?

No. Society, again, seems to have become obsessed with this idea of false-reality, and are so brainwashed by today’s ‘Barbie Doll’ type models that when the ‘real’ bodies hit the news, it causes a media frenzy. Recent photos from a Lady Gaga in Paris had everyone wondering out loud how she could have let herself suffer such a horrible fate – it was clear in the photos that she had gained some weight.  Critics and fans speculated about everything from drug abuse to pregnancy. The actual culprit? A simple love for food, something the media portrays as completely ludicrous.

Model Beverly Johnson was between a size 4 and 6 at the height of her career over twenty years ago. She wasn’t surprised to learn that meant she would almost be considered plus-size today. “I think there is a whole obsession with being thin- I see more women that are super, super thin than in any time in history,” she said.

The fashion industry, through the years, has subconsciously warped the mindsets of everyone it has come in contact with. ‘Listen, we need to embrace our bodies and love our bodies as they are,” Johnson said. Maybe her statement should serve as a wake-up call to not only modeling agencies, but anyone negatively influenced by the images they bombard us with.