Teetering on stilettos with heels the size of their wrists, most models embrace an unrealistic body image. They grace billboards and strut down runways, making girls hungry for a distorted belief of beauty. As measuring tapes have tightened around model’s waists, teenage girls’ ideas of beauty have shrunken to an idealized standard.

In an effort to diminish teen exposure to farfetched impressions of an ideal body, a French health-reform bill, ‘skinny-model ban,’ was passed into law Dec. 18, 2015. According to the American Journal of Public Health, experts from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) argue the average model has a BMI of less than 16, which is considered anorexia nervosa under World Health Organization guidelines. When young girls flip to models suffering from anorexia in Vogue or Seventeen they are being fed the notion that being underweight is beautiful and these magazines are inadvertently advertising anorexia. According to The American Journal of Psychiatry, a young woman with anorexia is 12 times more likely to die young than a woman without the eating disorder. Nearly 10 percent of those with anorexia die within 10 years of contracting the illness and at least 18 percent die within 20 years.

Some countries such as Spain, Italy and Israel already have laws similar to France’s in order to diminish this trend; U.S. health officials, however, have not addressed the issue. In 1970, after recognizing the full effects of smoking cigarettes, Congress passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, banning the advertising of cigarettes starting on Jan. 2, 1971. Just as cigarettes cause cancer, these fabricated advertisements are influencing a surge of anorexia. But, admiring these models is like being wishful of a distorted reality in a funhouse mirror.

According to Newsweek, the new law requires models to have a doctor’s note declaring they have a BMI above 18 in order to be hired in France. Models will also have their weight periodically checked to ensure they maintain their health. People who hire models below this new standard could face fines of up to 75,000 euros (roughly $81,620) or could spend six months in jail, according to CNN. Also, in response to digitally-altered images, whether that be making models appear larger or smaller, must say ‘retouched photograph’ or the company will face a fine of at least 37,500 euros (roughly $40,810). If the U.S. were to join France in regulating models’ weight, the toxic fashion industry could evolve into one of authenticity. However, without regulations the same skin-and-bone models are likely to carry on walking in New York Fashion Week come February. It’s time to end the mind games and implement a law to erase the distortion that instigates anorexia.

By the fashion industry demanding for wafer-thin models to decorate social media, teenage girls are compelled to believe in and pursue an unhealthy image. These high fashion models are strong role models to young women, and the illustrations teenage girls see in magazines are the images they strive to replicate. So, it is important girls are offered an authentic perception of beauty. Real beauty comes from real bodies.