This week Coco Rocha woke up to see the New York Daily News asking the city if she is too fat to be a runway model. After an interview with the New York Times, the Canadian model has been making headlines on the issue.

At size four, Coco Rocha has modeled for Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent. She isn’t letting the fashion industry determine her size any longer. In fact she has just released a statement on her blog. In the well written blog post, she points out that she’s busier than ever as a model, but that the issue of models weight is and will always be a concern to her. She said:

“Surely we all see how morally wrong it is for an adult to convince an already thin 15 year old that she is actually too fat. It is unforgivable that an adult should demand that the girl unnaturally lose the weight vital to keep her body functioning properly. How can any person justify an aesthetic that reduces a woman or child to an emaciated skeleton? Is it art? Surely fashions aesthetic should enhance and beautify the human form, not destroy it.”

On the topic of models speaking out ,Coco Rocha also said:

“In the past models have spoken out on this issue, only to be accused of saying something because their careers were on the brink of extinction. This is not so in my case. I actually first spoke out about this two years ago at the peak of what a model would consider the ideal career and there was a reaction – those who were the worst offenders suddenly asked me to work for them! This was a public relations ploy and I wasn’t prepared to fall for that. I said “No, lets go a few seasons, lets see if you change, then I will work with you”. They didn’t change. I haven’t worked for them.

Of my generation of models I’m exactly where I need to be in my career and I’m grateful to use my position to actively speak out against this with the support of the CFDA. My sincere hope is that through our efforts young models will one day be spared the humiliation, the risky weight loss, the depression that comes along with anorexia and the misery of abandonment by an industry ashamed to see them turn into actual women.”

“The CFDA has set codes in place for their members and I’d love to see the entire industry follow. Society legislates a lot of things – no steroid use in baseball is one example – its only reasonable that there be rules of conduct to keep the fashion industry healthy.”

ZERO sample size is the standard for runway and photo shoots. The Council Of American Fashion Designers held a conference last week to discuss whether they should move it up to a size four. We applaud Coco Rocha’s strong and brave stand on the issue of weight in the modelling industry.

This is only the latest in a long debate over weight issues in the fashion industry. Last year, Ralph Lauren got caught over photoshopping a model and Demi Moore appeared on the cover of W Magazine apparently photoshopped. Karl Lagerfeld added to the debate saying “no one wants to see round women.”  Model Lara Stone was also criticized for her size four weight. Changes are coming as seen in magazines refusing to cast anorexic models and designers slowly adopting fuller models, but is it coming too slowly?