Whether it’s indirectly or directly implied, being fit and obtaining the perfect body is a goal that everyone wants—not just women, men as well. However, not many are able to achieve their idea of the perfect body image because of many reasons, whether it be due to lack of motivation, health problems, or discouragement from people and images they see around them to look a certain way. Most people settle with having a body that suits what they are willing to give physically or lack there-of, while some don’t settle for anything less than what they deem “perfection”. As you grow up, society says that you should be confident and strong, and not conform to the opinions or ideas of others. However, this is hardly ever a successful or easy request to put into action.
As girls grow into adolescence, appearance becomes a major priority in their everyday lives. According to Park Nicollet Melrose Center, one of the most pivotal influences on how adolescent girls view their appearance is how focused their peers are on their own appearance. Here, the domino effect happens. When they see their friends becoming obsessed with the ideal body image, their thoughts become interrupted by wanting to obtain the perfect body too. The more girls start engulfing themselves into having the perfect body, the more they start to withdraw themselves from activities, like speaking up in class, sharing their opinions, going to school regularly, and swimming. Regular activities that once were normal and easy for them become a lot more difficult because of the pressure of how they look and the possible repercussions of putting themselves out in society confidently. Their insecurities begin to lie in what they think their peers will think of them if they participate in these activities. (Katzman, 2003)
When adolescent girls start to enter middle school, they begin to care a lot more about the way they look physically. At this age, they start experimenting with makeup and new fashion choices. At this age, the risk of developing mental illness increases. Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and self-harm become prevalent during this stage of an adolescent girl’s life.
Although there hasn’t been a definitive answer if the media encourages the “perfect body image” onto adolescent girls, there is a definite correlation between the two. According to the first source, Park Nicollet Melrose Center, 69% of high school girls said that pictures that they see in magazines influence their idea of the ideal body shape. Adding on to this, 47% of the girls also say that the pictures they see make them want to lose weight. Influences in the media are shown in magazines themselves. Although the connection between the media and body image isn’t fully there, data suggests that the correlation between the two is higher than one would think. Seeing thin women projected on TV and in magazines, according to a study conducted in Australia, reports that girls felt they weren’t good enough, attractive enough, or think enough. The same girls were also reported to be searching for diet tips online and in the magazines. Often times, these ideas are reinforced by family member and peers as well, which in turn adds double the stress to obtain the ideal body image. (Denza, 2017).
The second research Rachel Simmons, leadership development specialist at Smith College, wrote an article for TIME about whether or not Social Media “is a toxic mirror”. Simmons describes how teenagers have access to free body altering applications that allow them to change their appearance to their liking. This can range from teeth whitening, changing your body size, blurring out acne, and even applying makeup to different parts of your face. In this article, Simmons describes the difference between the long assumed “thin ideal” that movies, magazines, and television deliver to teens about their body image. However, Simmons argues the age of the smartphone is the true cause of the problem of body image issues. Social Media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat allow teenagers the platform to alter themselves to become the exact version of themselves they wish to be. Whether that is having the perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect teeth, or perfect body shape. Simmons included statistics from interviewed teenagers about their opinion on social media and the body image, and the consensus was that there is a strong correlation between the two, but social media doesn’t cause the problem completely. (Simmons, 2016).
Philippa Roxby, Health Reporter at BBC News, interviewed Caroline Nokes, a member of a parliamentary group that deals with charities, businesses and public bodies, about her campaign that aims to increase body confidence, called “Be Real: Body Confidence”. Caroline Nokes has had experience traveling to schools and talking to teenage girls, particularly 12-and 13-year olds about body image and how easy it is to manipulate them. A technique that Nokes uses to find out just how many have been affected by body pressure through social media, is asking them to close their eyes and raise their hands if they have ever enhanced an image on Facebook, or any other social media outlet. For most girls, they raised their hand on every question. Some even said that with every image they took, they altered them before posting them to social media. Growing up in this age, the camera’s that most to all smartphones have, offer a wide range of effects to enhance pictures you take. You are even able to make the most embarrassing or unattractive pictures become pleasant with the stroke of a finger on several applications that smartphones offer.
Nokes describes the world we live in as being viewed through a filter, which is damaging to the health of our adolescents that are encouraged and influenced to look a certain way, or change themselves based on the applications that are encouraged to be used on social media platforms. Dr. Phillippa Diedrichs, senior researcher at the University of West of England’s Centre for Appearance Research, has found a correlation between social media and body image. Diedrichs explains that, “The more time spent on Facebook, the more likely people are to self-objectify themselves”. Facebook, and other social media platforms alike, allow negative social interactions to appear in thus forums, and encourage people to comment on how you look, whether that be positively or negatively. Although this article is biased towards a negative impact on teenage girls through social media, the statistics follow through. Nokes and Dr. Diedrichs both believe that the answer to fixing the negative impact social media has on teenage girls is through diversifying the bodies that are shown when you go on social media, because you can change what body type is portrayed online, but you can’t really limit the amount of time teenage girls are going to use the internet. (Roxby, 2014)
An article written by Dove Global Self-Esteem Expert, Jess Weiner, explains that the effect that social media has on teenage girls, isn’t always as bad as it appears, although it is prevalent in society today. Weiner talks about how most social media platforms offer an outlet to share personal details about your life, the good and the bad. However, the correlation between positive mental health and social media in teenage girls is there too. Weiner explains that by having an outlet to share your life experiences, you allow yourself to be involved in a community that lets you post about your world. However, by posting your life most people never really share their bad days and only share their highlight reel. Weiner explains that teenage girls are hardwired to like social media, due to research that suggests it can both kick-start feelings of self-worth and diminish self-acceptance. Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Tara Cousineau, brings the idea that parents have a hard time understanding the need for social media through teenage girls. Through social media, teenage girls in particular are allowed to branch away from their family, and create a social circle online, making new friends and opening them up to new things that sharper and expand their minds. However, alike each article, there seems to be no set solution to this problem besides changing the materials being shown to teenage girls through social media, and encouraging family members to talk to their children about self-worth and confidence about their own bodies. (Dove , 2016)
Miribel Tran, junior at Marina High School, wrote an article for Huffington Post explaining the effects of “Social Media in Young Girls”, written from her eyes and experiences. Tran believes that companies will never abolish photoshopped images of models through advertising, but with a different mindset it is possible to change the way teenage girls can be effected in the future. An important thought that Tran speaks on is that companies will do anything to market their products, because sex sells. Companies don’t care if there is a teenage girl at home starving herself to obtain the “perfect” body image. They care if their advertisements have an effect on you and will motivate you to buy their products, even if that means you going through months or even years of distress to obtain the unattainable image. However, according to recent studies, the opposite has been shown. Having false images of models on companies’ advertisements doesn’t motivate the consumer to purchase these products, it actually causes depression in teenage girls. There is a strong link between obesity and depression, caused by social media in teenage girls, which in turn is shown to cause lower grades from these young girls being impacted. The solution from Tran is like the rest of the articles I have explored. The most effective solution being said is to empower young girls, and put none of the blame on the companies that are producing and releasing the advertisements with the false images to the public. (Tran, 2014).
The need for a solution to false imaging in advertisements in magazines and on social media is prevalent, but the lasting effects on those being effected are often overlooked or forgotten about. Brittany Tackett, author of Project Know, explains that the standards society puts into place for young girls through social media, contributes greatly to the increase of eating disorders and body dysmorphia in females. 20 million American women will experience an eating disorder at some point in their life, and more than half of those impacted are teenage girls. It isn’t just a trend today that the media has played a role in the development of eating disorders, research says that from the 1950s to the 1990s, fashion models have conformed to the ideal body weight and size of the average American woman of the time. Although social media wasn’t prevalent in these times, magazines and advertisements still glorified the perfect body image of the time and led to many middle-aged women feeling depressed that they didn’t fit the standards of the time. Although this statistic relates to middle-aged women, the audience of today has changed drastically and now young girls are the main viewers of these unattainable, photo shopped images in the media. Although social media does not directly have an impact on eating disorders and teenage girls, the trigger still exists for those who carry psychological predispositions, that some may not even be aware of until they are exposed to the body shaming material through social media. (Tackett, 2017)
The internet is a black hole where many go to seek advice, opinions, and knowledge but little expect to come out with depression, false opinions of oneself, and extreme expectations of becoming someone else. With that being said, not everyone comes out of the harsh realities that social media exposes them to. Although it is incredibly easy to read an article on how to look differently or look at pictures of the perfect body with hopes of obtaining it, it is also incredibly easy to miss the reality of the people behind these articles and pictures—capitalistic companies aiming to make you purchase their products, even if it means damaging your mental health in the process. There is no easy solution to solve the epidemic of teenage girls trying to conform to extreme, false standards that social media puts into place, especially with a growing population that holds technology on the highest pedestal, but with monitoring the teenage girls of today, mentally, physically, and literally on their screens, a change will be seen—even if it is in the smallest of strides. A little does go a long way.
