On Tuesday, the world of fashion was shook to its core as a Brazilian model passed away on a hospital bed in her native country. Ana Carolina Reston was not famous, but she had done a couple of jobs abroad, in Japan and a Giorgio Armani catalog. She was signed by L'Equipe model agency.

She had been modeling since she was 13 and she was keeping her family with the money she got from her contracts. When a representative from Armani said they could not use her photos because she was too thin, the modeling agency flew her back to Brazil and admitted her for treatment into a clinic. Unfortunately, it was too late for the girl who lived only on tomatoes and apples, who had a clear history of bulimia and anorexia.

'We brought Ana back to Brazil after she did a catalog for Giorgio Armani and a representative rang me to say she was too thin. It worried me coming from a professional used to dealing with models and I acted immediately, but I didn't see any physical sign of anorexia on her return', the owner of the model agency said.

Ana's mother refuses to blame any one in particular, save the industry in general, for promoting the image of skinny models as the perfect shape for a woman's body. 'Take care of your children... No money is worth the life of your child. Not even the most famous fashion brand is worth this. Dictatorship of skinny look kills a model', was her message to all the parents who think of encouraging their girls' dreams of becoming models.

When she died, the big-eyed Ana weighed only 40 kg, being 1.72m tall. She had the body of a 12-year-old girl, no taller than 1.5m. She was 21.