Models to discuss self image, bulimia

The Barbi twins, world-renown models turned bulimics will be speaking on self body image Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the Multipurpose Rooms in the University Student Union.

This lecture is designed to help expose the destruction of eating disorders, especially among women, on campus, said Lynne Coenen, assistant director of the Women's Resource Center.

Shane and Sia Barbi are "highly visible women who have overcome an addiction," Coenen said. Their "lives were really in a mess because of bulimia and this is the story."

The Barbis were catapulted into fame after being prominently displayed on a billboard over Sunset Boulevard in 1989. The billboard hurled them into the public spotlight. They lined up photo shoots, had their own calendar spreads and posed in two issues of Playboy.

But, in 1994, the twins ingested a mass amount of laxatives, leading to bulimia according to New Times. After one particularly bad incident where Sia almost killed herself, the Barbis confronted the disease, went public and left the modeling business.

"We think anything that can help women and raise the awareness Ö is really important," Coenen said.

Shane and Sia Barbi have written a book, "Dying to be Healthy," said Yassi Amimi, program assistant at the Program Council. The book, which focuses on various subjects from eating disorders to plastic surgery, is being promoted across several college campuses.

Program Council

The Barbi Twins will be speaking in the University Student Union Multipurpose Room Tuesday.