Where did Gemma go?

So I was reading the May issue of Vogue this morning, fliping through all the ads and editorials, and think ...something is missing. Whatever happened to Australian model Gemma Ward? I always remember her gracing her presents in every Vogue and Teen Vogue magazine I open every month when I was younger. Every teenage girl wanted her doll-like looks and so called "perfect" body.

Gemma was the youngest model to be listed in American Vogue and Teen Vogue and at age sixteen. Starting at the young age, she had been in shows for Prada, Valentino, Chanel, Gucci, Alexander McQueen, and for many more major designers. She was a HUGE deal at the time in the fashion industry.

<--Well her so called "perfect" body seems more like, either this girl is actually a twig off of the Eucalypt Woodlands (trees in Australia) or she really needs help. So will we ever see Gemma Ward gracing her presents again in magazines? No. Not in todays world. You know why? Because the series of criticism about her weight gain from the press. A year before she confirmed her "retirement", she said in quote, "I was suprised to wake up this morning and read news of my own retirement. While I am taking some time off currently to rest and enjoy the company of family and friends, I am still very much excited and enthusiastic working model. I'm only 20, for God's sakes." Page Six Magazine contains roughly 2,500 words on Ward's fallout from the fashion industry and how it is impossible to get clients with the weight she is now. An editor called her "big, almost bloated" when she came down Chanel's runway in 2007. Recently last November, her agency turned down a photo-shoot offer from Harper's Bazaar, stipulating that if she were to return to its pages, it would be on the condition that she be back in modeling shape. But even if she loses the weight, she will never be a supermodel again, claims a high-ranking fashion magazine source. Ward's sister, Sophie -a 24-year old writer and former model- summed up harsh realities of the business and how they affected her siblings psyche. "She came home every now and then, always for Christmas. I kept my head down trying to pretend my little sister wasn't being slaughtered internally by an external industry." Not only has this industry gotten so low and messed with the young Gemma Ward's physical and psychologcal being to be so skinny but now being in her early twenties, she can't get her foot back in the door! Are they really doing this to her?

<--Chanel's runway 2007. "Big, almost bloated" ...Really? You got to be kidding me!!

Is this how society should be seen? Girls who look like this are seen as big? This discusts me beyond belief. Not only did they slaughter her reputation, look, and mind, but they are setting one terrible outlook towards the young generation.

<----Gemma Ward today. You go Gemma! You get back on that horse and kick those editors and clients ass!