21 year old Brazilian model dies from Anorexia

21 year old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died on Tuesday from an infection caused by renal issues related to Anorexia. At the time of her death she was 1.72m tall and 40 kilos which is 5'7" and 88 pounds. Ana Carolina was a model for Ford, Elite, and L'Equipe.

So far, the articles about Ana Carolina's death are in Portuguese, but if you are interested you can see them in Yahoo Brazil here. There's a discussion about her in this LiveJournal page.

This is the kind of news that just breaks my heart. Coincidentally, Tuesday, November 14th, the day Ana Carolina passed away, was the same day that the HBO documentary "Thin" about eating disorders made its debut.

No doubt, fashion/ model defenders will start to say, again, that although tragic, Ana Carolina's death is an isolated case. The obsession with thinness in the fashion industry can have fatal consequences, and these folks just cannot get that through their thick skulls. It un-nerves me to no un-end.

No one should die because they are trying so hard to be pretty. No one should be made to feel less than so that others can make money. No one should be made to feel that they are not good enough because they don't look like some unrealistic standard of beauty. This is something to be angry about.

Update: Here is the news in English at MSNBC.com