Photo: ©  2010 AAP/MARK GRAHAM

The comely Federal Sports Minister says she is shocked by the lengths some women will go to get the body they crave.

"I want Australian girls to grow up happy, healthy and confident," she says in the magazine.

"Women and young girls see so many images every day that give them an unrealistic idea of what their bodies should look like, and it is having an impact on their health and confidence levels."

But some have been left wondering just what the 32-year-old Member for Adelaide is trying to achieve with the leggy shoots.

"Unfortunately a lot of magazines just see [eating disorders] as something that they might cover as an issue at the moment, but the rest of the year it doesn't seem to be on their radar," Eating Disorder Victoria spokeswoman Megan O'Connor told The Daily Telegraph.

The paper also says Ellis has undermined her push to have magazines use "normal sized" models and disclose when images are airbrushed, and reports that Ellis would not confirm if the shots had been retouched.

And Herald Sun columnist Robyn Riley has dished out the same criticism to Ellis that the sports-mad Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, has been copping lately.

"[Why is she] prancing around a sports field  … and not at her desk, as she needs to be?"