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Harriet Williamson is a freelance journalist and full-time copywriter. She blogs about feminism, fashion and mental health, and tweets @harriepw.
Harriet Williamson talks to people grappling with mental health and employment issues, and discovers an appetite to end shame and stigma.
Arriving at a JobCentre to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance, I felt like I’d fallen into the pages of Kafka’s The Trial. I was expected to navigate a complicated system while being treated with endless suspicion.
Sexualising young girls to sell clothes sends the message that all females, regardless of their age or developmental maturity, are fair sexual game.
Even after an eating disorder is a thing of the past, an action as trivial as flipping through a rack of t-shirts can be difficult.
The likes of American Apparel and Abercrombie & Fitch expect their sales staff to conform to a narrow conception of beauty, sometimes even calling them "models" so they can reject those whose faces don't fi.
Why - even though fashion is aimed at adult women - does it use teenage models? Is it because their bodies are more child-like - or because they are more compliant?
Allegations abound that the photographer behaves inappropriately on shoots. But he continues to be booked by fashion magazines and brands.
