I don’t think I’m the only one who has admitted to doing this, but I used to watch America’s Next Top Model so much that the theme song got stuck in my head more times than I probably cracked open my text books.

“You wanna be on the top?”

I was never particularly jealous of the girls on the show and their tall, long legged beauty. In fact, I sometimes mimicked their runway walks by throw my hips to so far out I’m surprised I never pulled a muscle.

What got me every time ANTM started a new season was how young they were: eighteen or nineteen years old; size 2 jean wearing; runway walking amoebas. It certainly put my 20-year-old, 5’4, and a collective weight of several bags of potatoes into perspective.

I’ve also noticed that when it comes to modeling there’s a certain over emphasized kind of sex element that gets thrown in. You get guys in their tiny whitey, girls nearly naked and enough fierce-ness to make Tyra Banks proud.

I always thought it was a little weird to see a girl younger than 18-years-old is a very revealing snapshot in the magazines. I mean, have you even hit puberty yet? Are you even comfortable in your own skin enough to be doing – that?

New Zealand model Zippora Seven appeared in the Australia magazine Russh topless in a bath with a male model, also 16, and then later riding topless on a horse.

Maybe it makes me a prude but when I read that I had the urge to want to throw a blanket over Zippora. After all, there are laws that prohibit minors being portrayed naked.

The woman who discovered Zippora defended the photo shoot by saying there are many magazines that take photos of naked children, and that it all depends on how it is presented.

So, does that make it mature kiddy porn—because they have a few bottles of wine and horse in the background?

Maybe this is just another artsy moment that I’m not totally understanding, or this could just easily be a reason for really creepy guys to ogle something they would normally get arrested for purchasing.
—Eming Piansay