SCOTS singer Sandi Thom has revealed she felt compelled to drop a dress size after being bombarded with images of emaciated celebrities.
The 26-year-old Aberdeenshire-born performer lamented about the no-curves culture on her website. "I pick up the papers and magazines these days and all I see are celebrities getting thinner and thinner and thinner.
"It makes me feel awful. The t
hing is that I just think it is so silly even try to reach that kind of size unless you are Girls Aloud and have diets and rigorous dance routines.
"All these skinny celebs have made me get back into the gym and admittedly I feel the pressure to stay thin these days.
"So far since I started out in this industry I've gone from a size 10 to an eight, which I think is a 4 in the USA. But can you imagine being a size zero? I can't imagine being that thin."
Thom is the latest in a line of celebrities to criticise the burgeoning size-zero culture.
TV presenter Kelly Osbourne said recently: "I feel sorry for the girls who aspire to be size zero.
Everyone has become a sheep. These girls don't eat, stick their fingers down their throats and do loads of speed – they're killing themselves and for what? Their own vanity. It's sad. I don't think there's anything trendy about looking like you've just come out of Auschwitz."
Harry Potter author JK Rowling also joined the debate. "I've got two daughters ... and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny. Frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking Chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do."
The full article contains 311 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
