I chose this research question because it is a very prominent issue in today's society. The media is portraying an unrealistic body image to teenagers. As a teenage girl myself, I understand this issue and the effects that it can have. Being able to relate to this topic made me more passionate about it and choose to pursue it. The research that I did for the ILP's so far have somewhat changed the direction I was planning on going in. I knew that this issue could very well lead to eating disorders but I wasn't planning on making that a focus point of my essay until I started doing my research. I found a lot of information on how this unrealistic body image that the media portrays can directly lead to eating disorders and how big of an issue this is. The information I found regarding this was good evidence for my argument and I decided it would be useful to redirect my focal points and use some this information. 

I have not personally struggled with an eating disorder, but I do understand the negative influence that the media has and how it can make you feel. It is hard to ignore the extremely thin models and celebrities who look fabulous in everything they wear and how their make up always seems to be perfect. These celebrities are whom are generation seem to focus on and look up to. It is even harder to ignore because us teenagers are constantly on social media being exposed to these pictures of perfect, skinny models. The picture's that we see every day are almost impossible to live up to. Of course some of these pictures are photo shopped, but a lot of these models are actually that skinny which makes it even harder not to think, why am I not that skinny? How can I get that skinny? What we see in the media raises questions like these in every girl's brain and we begin to feel bad about ourselves. Our self-esteem is lowered and we sometimes do drastic things to try and be as thin as that one model we saw in that one picture on social media this morning. We know it's not normal to be that thin, but the fact that the media is showing us all these girls who are that thin, we begin to doubt ourselves and we begin to think that we are the ones who are not normal rather than them. 

I think the fact that I am a teenage girl who is exposed to the media every day and that I personally understand how it can have a strong effect on your self-esteem makes me a stake holder in this topic. I'm one of the countless teenagers in the world who are affected by the media portrayal of body image. I'm very interested in the topic and I can personally relate to it. My empathy adds ethos and pathos and my interest allows me to be open-minded in my research. My personal experiences with this issue could be seen as bias but I think they more so add credibility and passion to my argument. I clearly have an opinion but it makes my argument stronger. I not only have a strong opinion on how media does negatively affect body image, but I also have an interest in the broader question. I know that media is not the only thing that has an affect on body image. I can see and understand both sides of the argument and still have my own opinion, which is what will make my argument even stronger.   

I know that the media does have an affect on teenage girls, regarding body image, but I hope that I can find specific studies and statistics in my research. These studies will add to the logos of my argument and provide proof. 

With my argument, I hope to effectively address how the media is specifically portraying a false sense of reality on body image. In my paper I will state my argument and then give evidence to back it up. I believe if I give a lot of specific evidence then I will be able to write 8-10 pages on it. I plan to talk about how models are abnormally thin and support this with what the average weight really is for someone that height. I also want to discuss the term "plus size" and how it is not really considered to be plus size these days. Also, I want to bring up the point that most of these models/celebrities have people who do their hair and make up every single day, something that most people don't have available to them. It is important to state that some of these images are photo shopped as well. Although, we are still exposed to these images regardless and not everyone can reason that an image is photo shopped or that a professional did their make up for them or that the models are the ones who are not the normal weight. This would lead into my main point that these images are negatively affecting the teenage girls who look at them. Their self-esteem is shattered and they feel bad about themselves, which can lead to drastic measures such as eating disorders just to achieve the "perfect body" that the media is portraying. 

I might need to revise my research question so that it is more complex and I can narrow in on one aspect of it. I also might want to reword it so that I can discuss more of the cause and effect of the media portrayal of body image than just simply how it affects it. I think the scope is broad and I can touch on a lot of different aspects of this topic that I want by keeping it broader. It is a topic that has a lot of different angles but I don't think it is one that gets confusing or that a reader can get lost in because it is all so closely related and it flows together as solid evidence.
