The fate of magazines has been in the news quite a bit these days, from decreasing subscription revenues to complaints about size-0 models being non-representative of readers themselves. Brigitte magazine, said to be the most popular magazine for women in Germany and published bi-monthly, has just announced a decision which may impact both of those things very positively.

Beginning in January 2010, Brigitte will no longer use professional models on its pages but will use "real" women, be they readers of the magazine, employees or prominent German women. The goal is to showcase "normal" women – and normal women are not usually a size zero. They are, in U.S. measurements, a size 12 or 14. In Germany, that makes them a size 40 or 42. The decision is said to be in response to reader comments that the models on the pages of the magazine are not a true reflection of them.

There is no guarantee that models used in the magazine's advertising will be "regular" women and the magazine's editor-in-chief has said that Brigitte will not become a magazine for "plus-sized" women, but the general consensus is that this is a huge leap forward in both the fashion and publishing industries.

There are those who applaud the Brigitte decision and those who disagree with it. Those supporting the decision suggest that this will go a long way towards helping women improve and accept their own self-image and confidence. And that it may even have a positive effect on the number of women who end up with anorexia or bulimia. Some critics say that women prefer to see photos of other women that are aesthetically pleasing. I think the arguments in support of the decision outweigh the naysayers.

That said, there are blogs out there where "real" women are suspicious of the decision, thinking that they would be rejected if they fill out the application to be one of the new models in 2010 if they are "too big". The website does in fact ask for the applicant's measurements but doesn't give any limits one way or the other. In addition, some skeptics think this is just a ploy to increase readership and subscriptions, resulting in financial gain.

There is no doubt that the publisher would not have made this decision if there wasn't going to be any financial gain. We live in a capitalistic society after all. But if it does have a positive impact on women, then why not do it? In fact, why not support it? The success of the decision will ultimately depend on the women of Germany and their acceptance of the changes in the pages of their favourite magazine.