I have always been interested in eating disorders and what makes women and more specially adolescents develop said eating disorders. I find that in today society, the media is one of the strongest influencers when it comes to how women and children want to look and also how they perceive themselves. This research question effects me because I am a woman and as a child, my generation lived through the time where media began to have a profound effect more so than previous generations. The media tells women how they need to look in order for society to accept them or find them "pretty". I have personal experience with the topic of eating disorders because one of my good friends in high school had anorexia and she wrote her senior speech on her battle. She claimed that the media had a huge impact on how she perceived herself and she would see pictures of models and believed that since she did not look like them that she was not beautiful.  I am qualified to write about this due to the fact that I have had personal experience with the topic at hand and I have started the process of researching body image and more specifically eating disorders.

This article talks about the three main types of eating disorders that are present in todays society. It goes into depth explaining each type of eating disorder and what the symptoms are and who is effected by these eating disorders. It then talks about the causes of eating disorders and what makes people develop them. It also talks about examples of environmental factors that may contribute to the occurrence of said eating disorders. Jacquelyn Ekern has her masters in Counseling/Psychology, at Capella University. She received her Bachelor of Science in Human Services degree from The University of Phoenix. Ekern is the founder and president of Eating Disorder Hope and Addiction Hope. She is a licensed professional counselor with a closed private practice. There may be some bias present in the article due to the fact the that author is the founder of the organization Eating Disorder Hope so she may be trying to get her personal agenda across due to the fact that this is her work.

This article mainly talks about the rise in childhood eating disorders. It gives specific figures on how these eating disorders effect the youth in society. It focuses on specific cases saying that eating disorder have been reported in children as young as six years old. It lists figures such as a children's Hospital at Westmead's eating disorders clinic in Sydney, which focuses it work on adolescence aged seven to 17 and found that eating disorders in that age group is risen enormously since 2000. It also lists warning signs of early childhood eating disorders and tips on how to monitor children's eating habits. Melinda Huchings is a media commentator as well as an author and speaks on body image and teen issues. She writes for the Huffington post which makes her a credible author and has a book published called, "Why cant I look the way I want?: Overcoming Eating Issues." This article has bias because Huchings is the author of a book which shares the same topic so she could be trying to promote her book by only giving certain information that will make the reader want to buy it.

This article talks about how social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram lend to how women think negatively about themselves. It states that the more women are exposed to "selfies" and other photos on social media, the more they compare themselves negatively, according to a study. The study also states that friends' photos may be more influential than celebrity pictures because they actually know the person, say UK and US experts. The author of the article, Helen Briggs is a multi-media journalist at BBC News and a journalist fellow at the Reuters Institute for Journalism at Oxford University. Briggs is also an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. There is little bias present because much of the article is scientific studies.

The research question at hand is arguable because there have been numerous studies done on this topic by very credible researchers. Most of the sources I have found thus far have agreed with my argument that media has a profound effect on women's body image. These different perspectives in the sources that I have found make me realize that there is a problem with how the media portrays what is pretty and what is not to the general public. I might need to narrow my topic just because there is so much information on this topic and not all can be covered in a 10-page paper. 
