Size Zero: My Life as a Disappearing Model

Description

A memoir of a brief career as a top model - and the brutally honest account of what goes on behind the scenes in a fascinating, closed industry. Scouted in the street when she is 17, Victoire Dauxerre's story started like a teenager's dream: within months she was on the catwalks of New York's major fashion shows, and part of the most select circle of in-demand supermodels in the world. But when fashion executives and photographers began to pressure her about her weight, forcing her to become ever thinner, Victoire's fantasy came at a cost. Food was now her enemy, and soon, living on only three apples a day and Diet Coke galore, Victoire became anorexic. An unflinching, painful expose of the uglier face of fashion, her testimony is a shocking example of how our culture's mechanisms of anorexia and bulimia can push a young woman to the point of suicide. It is the story of a survivor whose fight against poisonous illness and body image shows us how to take courage and embrace life. Written with Valerie Peronnet.

Victoire Dauxerre was born in Paris in 1992. She is currently studying Drama in London and training to be an actress

'What makes Size Zero unique and persuasive is that it is a highly intelligent girl's dark snapshot of the reality of this modern fairy-tale. What is unusual is how, bravely, Dauxerre names names - even the big ones' Sunday Times 'It is rare for someone to blow the whistle so spectacularly as Dauxerre. Hers is a salutary tale of abuse in plain sight. Hopefully her book will be a force for good' Evening Standard 'A poignant book' Elle 'This book has an important purpose' Times