Here's a clipping from Fashion Magazine in Canada. The full article is here:
http://www.fashionmagazine.com/Fashi...1&Parentid=260
Quote:
And while the age of the average teen model may seem almost perversely young to the layperson, there is a method to the industry’s madness that goes beyond an aesthetic fetish for youth.
"Once a girl has had her 20th or 21st birthday, she’s usually very set in her ways," explains Olsen. "She has a style already, she has a boyfriend, she doesn’t want to get braces on her teeth, she knows best. It’s much, much easier to groom a younger girl. Sixteen is the perfect age to get a girl started, because she’s more confident than a 14-year-old; she’s just turning into a young woman. But 14 is great, too, because if I don’t sign a 14-year-old one of my competitors is going to."
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So basically it's easier to manipulate a younger girl into what you want her to be as a model. Also height gives you different proportions so instead of being a normal teen still losing their baby fat they have the slender body of a woman combined with the natural glowy skin and firecracker metabolism which start to dim away with age. It's a two in one ideal that keeps comsumers buying the products thinking that perhaps they can be one step closer to achieving the that.