Discuss.(ting)

At 5 feet 11 inches tall and 108 pounds, model is malnourished, doctors say:

updated 8:59 a.m. ET, Thurs., April 23, 2009

Australia's Miss Universe contest was thrown into controversy on Thursday with doctors and dieticians complaining a leading finalist was "skin and bones" and dangerously malnourished.

Sydney model Stephanie Naumoska, 19, was one of 32 contestants from more than 7,000 hopefuls to make the glittering final at an event promoting "healthy, proportioned, bodies."

"Bony or beautiful?" newspaper headlines said over photographs of a gaunt Naumoska posing in a red string bikini.


Health professionals said Naumoska, who is 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) tall and weighs just 49 kg (108 lbs), had a body mass index of just 15.1, well under the official 18 benchmark for malnutrition.

"She would be categorized as underweight and I would certainly want to be doing an assessment of her diet to make sure she doesn't have some type of eating disorder," dietician Melanie McGrice told local newspapers.

"She needs blood tests, diet analysis and an overall assessment."

Pageant director Deborah Miller said brunette Naumoska, who was defeated in the final by 20-year-old television presenter and model Rachael Finch, had Macedonian heritage, which accounted for her extreme thinness.

"They have long, lithe bodies and small bones. It is their body type, just like Asian girls tend to be small," Miller said.

But Australian Medical Association president Rosanna Capolingua, whose organization represents Australian doctors, said the contest should impose a minimum BMI cut-off of 20.

"The most unhealthy part about it, though, is the image it is showing other young women who may view this as normal, when clearly it s not," Capolingua said.

While Naumoska refused to speak to media, nutritionist Susie Burrell told the Herald Sun newspaper there was no such thing as a Macedonian body type.

Eventual winner Finch will compete in the Miss Universe world finals in the Bahamas in August.

I think she's disgustingly skinny.
and that is NOT a good role model for young girls, and considering what she's supposed to be promoting? LOL. They REALLY should stick to the min. of a 20 BMI.

Or at least a 18.5 min.

The justification quotes were sad. How shallow. It's quite apparent a Big Mac would last this chick a whole week. Fuck, heritage got nothing to do with that look.

If this is the best down under could serve up for a contest of this magnitude, lord help them.

I think if more bones show then collar, elbows, knees, and sometimes hips..then the girl is toooo skinny.
Yeh..like trying to compare it to asain women?! Asian women are short and lean, but they are healthy looking with out looking like skeletons! And her background and genes have NOTHING to do with it, her genes might give her small bones, they might keep her on the lean side, but I've yet to see a gene that makes a woman look sickly skinny.

Being close to Australia and having visited there a few times, I can say for sure that the women there are beautiful, natural and healthy, definitely not what this lady looks like. I'm sure there would have been a million more girls who would have suited being an example (which is basically a byproduct of a pagent) much more. That is not healthy, at least a healthy BMI should be required.

She is very slim. She looks pretty much what most of the Aussie teenage girls look like down the beach anyway, well the ones who decided to wear bikinis and the ones where i live. It's certainly not uncommon to see heaps of girls like that here. The weather is hot most of the year around and we don't wear as much clothes so there is a big motivation to not pig out and keep an eye on your weight.

So in some ways she is actually representing something realistic but quite possibly difficult for some women to achieve.

she is too skinny.
you can tell on the shape of her arms- how the bones show.
also at her height that weight is no where near healthy. I know models and beauty pageants have to take great care of their selves but that is taking it a bit too far. she would look so much better with 20 pounds on her.

If that's Miss Universe then I want to move to different one.

Beam me up Scotty.

On a more serious note, this is the second thing I am less than impressed with in Australia. First I saw the Biggest Loser meal replacement plan (for those that don't know, the BL organization in Oz sells meal replacement bars, shakes and soups and recommends people skip 2 real meals a day and eat one of their branded replacements). I thought the whole idea of Biggest Loser was showing people they could do it with unprocessed foods and exercise, not chemical bars and concoctions. Hypocritical to the max.

Now this beauty pageant entrant? She should have been turned away at the door, or better yet led directly to a doctor and dietitian. Considering Australia is currently the "fattest" country in the world, per-capita, this is simply a slap in the face to the rest of the beautiful Australian people, regardless of size.

Oh well....

sirant

That is not attractive, BUT people should also try to contain themselves, and not beat up on people who obviously NEED help. That never does anyone any good.

I thought they changed how slender and how much female models were allowed to weigh after that last one fell over dead on the runway?

"at an event promoting "healthy, proportioned, bodies." HEALTHY being the word there..I think they aren't changing their laws around like they're supposed to do. She needs help, and whomever is holding these events should be punished or brought to the public eye so everyone can decide whether they're really concerned about their jobs. THEY ( who is they anyways) need to be prosecuted. Seriously.

This poor model looks sickly!! There is nothing healthy or well proportioned about her. There is more skin and bones then there is flesh and muscle tissue. I am disgusted she was allowed to compete, I hope someone had the sense to get her a doctor and a a healthy meal into her!!

I completely disagree, I have lived on Australian beaches all my life and i've never seen a single girl looking like that. The majority of girls I see on the beach in their bikinis are fit and healthy, even with some generous curves. I do not think that this is representing something realistic at all.

for sure

she's obviously a beautiful girl if she's running for miss universe, but i think she would look 100 times better if she gained 10 or hell, even 20 lbs. i mean, she is a role model for younger girls. i thought there were some sort of guidelines for pagents like that, like health wise (and i guess it would be weight wise in this case)? like i know in the miss america pagent, women were not disgustingly thin like this.

As we normally do over here in the USA media, of course, the mainstream networks are running with this story. I saw no less than three 'morning' shows run a piece on her already today. More to follow, I'm sure.

The only defense possible that I can think of, though not knowing if it's applicable in this case, is she grew up as a 'contestant child'.

I'm not trying to use leverage for an excuse here but I do believe we've all heard stories how the mindset of these women are not their own through extensive pressure of upbringing by moms/coaches. I do believe that one can be mentally conditioned to see only one vision and ignore what we see as the obvious.

Again, I don't know if this is her particular situation. I'd hate to think this was self-induced. If so, this goes way beyond the physical harm.

Yes, 15 more would make her more beautiful than she can apparently see. The real mystery is how the judging allowed her to get this far in the competition(s). That's just wrong on so many levels.