**Please be aware that this post contains an image that may be triggering if you are in recovery from an eating disorder.**

Well, Victoria Beckham is in some hot water this week.

Yep, that Victoria Beckham. Equally known for her previous life as the enviable Posh Spice, and her status as David Beckham’s ridiculously fashionable wife.

Honestly, just hearing her name takes me back to my elementary school obsession with the Spice Girls, and all their platform shoes, pleather, and “Girl Power” glory.

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Well, waking up this week to a firestorm of tweets, outraged over her sunglasses advertisements, my interest was piqued, and I had to do some investigating.

She had released a new line of eyewear frames, and the advertisements included a model who, was so emaciated, it made me lose my breath.

(I went back and forth about including the photo, as I am very aware that, as many of my readers are in recovery from an eating disorder, some may find this image highly disturbing or worse, triggering. However, this is a case of “a picture is worth 1,000 words,” so I am going ahead with including it.)

I’m going to be honest, my very first thought when seeing that photo was, “Dear Lord, she looks like a Holocaust victim.”

And then my brain went to, “Lord, help all the impressionable girls who see this photo.”

And then I had to close out of the image before it started doing bad things to my own recovery.

This post is not out to body shame, or to speculate whether or not this 29 year old model has an eating disorder.

I nearly died from anorexia. Knew every “trick” in the book. If you think I can’t tell if someone is actively engaging in anorexia or bulimia simply from looking at them, you’re kidding yourself.

But I’m not here to call out this woman.

Instead, I’d like to turn the attention elsewhere.

I remember back in high school when I was really struggling, and deep in the throes of anorexia, I used to pine after the bodies of these waif-like models and actresses, and just obsess over their thinness. Obsess is even too gentle of a word. I would scrutinize them, as I would my own body. Comparing, detailing, dreaming, lusting after the sunken in cheeks and protruding bones.

I would not stop until I too, resembled the skeletal bodies I saw on the runways and advertisements.

To say that how women are portrayed in the media can have a negative effect on an impressionable young girl’s image and idea of beauty is the understatement of the century. Just ask 78 pound me.

I saw Victoria Beckham’s advertisement, and I literally started crying, thinking about that teenage girl, who is locked away in her bedroom, coveting the emaciated body of the model in that shot. Planning how she’s going to skip her next meal, or secretly exercise, all the while, loathing herself with a vehement hatred that leads one to slowly kill herself, one bite at a time. Just like I did.

My heart breaks for that hurting girl. The beautifully broken girl who doesn’t realize the incredible gift that she is to this world. The hurting girl who doesn’t realize how immensely loved she is, cherished by a God who wants nothing more than for her to thrive.

Victoria Beckham, shame on you for putting this image out there into the world. For blasting it on your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, website, and in the magazines across the world.

You could have said No. You could have said, “This image is harmful to the minds of young girls.” But you didn’t, and the damage is already done.

This isn’t meant to drag Beckham, here. Because truthfully, the problem is bigger than any former, “Girl Power”-loving Spice Girl.

And therein lies the problem.

I’m just so sick of Tinsel Town calling themselves champions of women, and yet pushing and perpetuating these unhealthy standards of beauty.

When is someone going to have the courage to say, “This isn’t beautiful, it’s dangerous.”

This model’s body type isn’t something to aspire to, it’s a death wish.

And again, this is not meant to be a personal jab at this particular model. But for crying out loud. Someone needs to take a stand and say, this standard of beauty is killing our girls.

Because clearly, the literal poster child of “Girl Power” in the nineties — Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham – who herself HAS A DAUGHTER – is not going to do it.

“Girl Power” my ass.

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