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Average-sized Swedish mannequins

Rebecka Silvekroon is a Swedish blogger who posted a picture of realistically-sized mannequins on her personal blog three years ago.

It was posted along with the positive message; "Store mannequins in Sweden," they look like real women. The U.S. should invest in some of these." 

Nothing much came of the picture, until last month, when all of a sudden the photograph began to spread like wild-fire on social media. After just a few days the post had racked up over a million ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ and was featured in articles all over the world.

The appetite with which people consumed Rebecka’s photo and her message, sends out a powerful appeal to the fashion industry to change the way women are represented. The call for action is growing louder as we are seeing more and more instances of women challenging the status-quo and asking for a more realistic, healthy body image to be promoted.

“It is an encouraging sign of the times that we’re beginning to push back against the anorexic ideal that is so deeply embedded in our commercial and cultural aesthetic" says Journalist, Delia Lloyd, from the Washington Post.

After the photo went viral, Rebecka’s life has been turned upside down. The blogger is using her internet fame for good. Her website SwedishMannequins.com aims to get people from across the world to engage in conversations about body image and the way women are portrayed in the media. Rebecka’s mission is to challenge unhealthy body ideals and force changes within the fashion industry.
Women24 couldn’t agree more with Rebecka’s initiative! 

It’s about time we see some of our South African retailers changing the mannequins that adorn our shop windows. Stores need to represent the women that choose to shop with them, not a super-thin image of unrealistic perfection.

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