"Fat", "ugly", "not good enough", these are the words that frequent a young girl's mind.  Looking into a mirror, it is easy for girls to pick out many areas of their appearance that they feel need to be improved. This unfortunate phenomenon stems from low self-esteem and is occurring in many household across the nation.  If we live in a country that is supposed to promote diversity, then why don't these girls see the beauty in their so called imperfections?  This is because the negative body image of young girls develops from the important relationships that they build in their everyday lives- parent and peer relationships.  In most cases, girls have a close relationship with their parents, which influences their morals and social behaviors because they are learning how to feel about themselves and how to interact with other people directly from their parents.  When a girl hears her mom and dad comment on a woman's appearance negatively, it causes her to reflect on her own appearance in the same way.  Therefore, she begins to have low self-esteem, feeling as if she is not good enough.  This perpetuates a cycle that will be passed on to her daughter, creating a trend of negative self-image from generation to generation.  In addition to this, girls are often surrounded by negative "body talk" at home.  Moms are constantly self-shaming their own appearance through negative commentary on their weigh and body shape, which leads to the same self-shaming by their daughters.  Lastly, girls want to be accepted by their peers, having the idea that they will gain popularity if they are "beautiful" and "thin".  A young girl will take this idea and begin to compare herself to those around her, not understanding that her uniqueness is what makes her beautiful.  This leads to a negative body image because she will never be exactly like any other girl.  Therefore, she will never feel as if she is attractive enough, and will be in a continuous battle with her body.  In relation to this, girls are often comfortable talking to their close friends about the body parts that give them low self-esteem.  Being constantly surrounded by this negative talk can cause any girl to think negatively a majority of the time, and she will start to see herself in a negative light.  Although all of these relationships can arguably have positive effects on adolescent girls, such as learning how to be social and accepted for diversity, the infectious negative influences that they have heavily outweigh the positive.

The mother-daughter relationship is a unique interaction, as the mother plays a very important and influential role in a young girl's life.  She is especially influential when it comes to regard for body image and eating habits. When a mother expresses concern for her daughter's body, in addition to her own weight and dieting habits, she is teaching her daughter only to see her imperfections (Corning, Gondoli, Hillard, and Morrissey, 2015).  This turns the mother-daughter relationship into a negative one, often without the mother even realizing what she is doing, which ultimately continues throughout the daughter's adolescence and into their relationship during the next stages of life- being a young adult and then into motherhood.  When a girl not only hears what her mom is saying about her own body, but also becomes the target for negative comments, she can't help but develop a diminished body image.  This is then translated into the need to do something about her body, which leads to issues such as eating disorders and excessive exercise.  During adolescence, the relationship between mother and daughter can become especially strained.  The problem usually stems from the misunderstanding that mothers and daughters have for one another.  Daughters feel as if they are already a part of something greater than being an adolescent, while mothers see them as who they are now, rather than who they are going to be, or what they are going to look like. (Fischer, 1981) This makes it hard for mothers to understand that girls are seeing who they are now as who they are going to be in ten or twenty years.  Girls at this age don't understand that they are going to develop into adults, which comes with body changes, while mothers are at the age where they are fully grown and there are no big developmental changes coming for them.  Therefore, when a mother makes negative remarks about her daughter's body, the daughter sees this as a permanent problem, rather than something she may grow out of.  At the same time, mothers are making negative comments on the fully developed adult bodies that they have and girls are relating this to their "permanent" bodies that they don't understand have yet to develop.  This is what leads to the 'fixes' of eating disorders and excessive exercising.  As a young girl grows into a young adult, she carries the pattern of self-criticism that has been set by her mother and she is unable to escape the terrorizing world of not being physically good enough.  At this point, this new young adult has become victim to herself, to her mind, and to her body.  Although she should be growing into her own person, a unique and beautiful individual, all she is able to see is the new imperfections that are developing with her new adult body.  When a girl reaches the stage of motherhood, she begins to see her mom in a new light.  As a new mother herself, she reevaluates the relationship they have. From here, the daughter begins to feel closer to her mother, and she "unconsciously takes in her mothering style" (Fischer, 1981).  This very important transition quickly becomes unhealthy because the daughter takes in the negative body talk from her mother and then passes it down to her daughter, creating a never ending cycle from generation to generation.  In addition to this, mothers cause their daughters to develop low self-esteem through negative comments and associations about herself.  For instance, when a mother obsesses about her weight and eating habits, girls take notice (Heubeck, 2006).  They notice the derogatory comments that their mom is making about her body and they directly relate it to themselves.  If mom is only thinking this way about her body, then the daughter never learns to see the beauty in herself, painting a negative picture and creating low self-esteem.  Sadly, girls as young as 5 to 8 are noticing this, as they have been interviewed saying that they are dissatisfied with their bodies because their moms are unhappy with themselves (Wallace, 2015). Not only do these girls notice what moms are saying, but they "take what is said to heart" (Heubeck, 2006). Overall, the mother-daughter relationship can lead to a negative body image for the daughter because of the great influences that derogatory comments and the unhappiness of a mother have on a young girl and her self-worth.

Looking at the other side of the parent-child relationship, fathers play just as big of a role in the development of their daughters as the mothers do, especially in the time of adolescence (Heubeck, 2006).  When learning how to see herself and relate to other people at this young stage in life, particularly those of the opposite sex, a daughter will look to her father.  She takes into account how he treats women and then develops her self-awareness from there.  This influence tends to give girls a negative idea of what men are looking for in a woman, leading to a negative body image.  Being the influential role models they are, fathers provide a base for how girls interaction with men.  Through the everyday interactions that they have with women, they "provide feedback about which aspects of appearance are important" to members of the opposite sex (Salafia, Blodgett, and Schaefer, 2014).  Seeing her father act in a derogatory manner toward women who don't meet the 'ideal standard' of being thin or muscular, a girl develops a negative connotation with women who don't have a particularly lean body shape.  She then relates this to herself, and she begins to feel as if she is not good enough.  It is very obvious to girls how their dads perceive women in general, meaning that he could tell her that she is perfect the way she is, but the only thing that sticks with her is his interactions with other women (Heubeck, 2006).  Therefore, it is critical that fathers are aware of what they are saying when they come into contact with both thin attractive women, as well as women who may not be as attractive to them.  All in all, when a father has positive interactions with only thin women, he is teaching his daughter that her value comes from being lean and attractive, giving her a negative body image.


Everybody wants to have friends and be liked, especially adolescent girls.  There is a stigma at this age that surrounds the idea of popularity being the holy grail of social interactions.  Because of this idea that sticks in young girls' minds, they are greatly influenced by peers, and there is a large part of the body image girls develop at this age that is negatively affected.  At the center of this complicated peer-peer relationship is the "objectification theory" which accounts for the idea that girls internalize thinness-related commentary from others after being teased and then view themselves as "unattractive objects to the opposite sex" (Salafia, Blodgett, and Schaefer, 2014).  Adolescence is the time when this theory is most in effect because this is when a girl's life intensifies with peer relationships and more time is spent with peers.  Girls at this age are more aware of how they are developing and maturing and, therefore, easily internalize derogatory comments made about their peers' bodies, which translates into issues within themselves.   Friendships, which play a huge role in developing girls, are the closest of peer relationships.  There tends to be a "culture of appearance," meaning that friends are more comfortable expressing concerns about their own bodies when they are around each other (Tergouw).  This causes girls to see themselves negatively because they take the negative aspects that their friends point out about their bodies and they internally relate to them.  Therefore, "girls are more dissatisfied with their bodies when their friends are dissatisfied with their own bodies" (Tergouw).  Friendships now become a dangerous breeding ground of negative self-esteem for these girls and they don't even realize it.  They are sucked into the self-shaming talk, thinking that they are having harmless conversations with their friends, when in reality their minds are taking in every words and translating it into "you're not good enough."  In addition to friendships, peer relationships in general are detrimental to the body image of young girls.  These girls think that they are being evaluated by everyone around them, as if their appearance defines who they are.  This inner thought turns into a fear that they do not look good enough for their peers, leading to low self-esteem and negativity towards their bodies.  Not only are girls doing this internally to themselves, but they are also receiving criticism externally from their peers.  "Peers are critical" and girls tend to feel that they need to be accepted, or to be popular, which is directly associated with physical characteristics (Tergouw).  There is always an internal comparison going on inside a girl's mind, as she compares her physical attributes all the girls she interacts with, and then compares their "popularities".  If she had the attributes of those other girls, then she would look good enough to be popular.  Everyone is different, however, so she will never be exactly the same as any other girl, which makes her feel as if she is not good enough and gives her a negative self-image.  This unfortunate series of events is being seen in girls at younger and younger ages.  Preschoolers are showing signs of body dissatisfaction as soon as they accomplish developmental tasks because of their peers (Culp-Ressler, 2015).  There is a social importance that comes from having peer relationships, but these relationships are causing a comparison of appearance among adolescent girls, causing them to have a negative body image.

The important parent and peer relationships that are built in a young girl's life show a very negative correlation with body image.  There are, however, arguments for positive effects that these relationships have on the self-esteem of these girls.  Mothers who constantly see their daughters' appearance in a negative light can influence them in a positive way if they are expressing their concerns about their own bodies at the same time.  This is giving the daughter a more buffered feel about weight loss than a feel of personal attack (Corning, Gondoli, Hillard, and Morrissey, 2015).  A mother dieting may also serve as a form of social support for the daughter who is being encouraged to lose weight, rather than being seen as a 'quick fix' for the weight loss journey.  These two influences can be positive, but do not account for the negativity that appears when they are not being used correctly.  If the mother expresses concern about her daughter more than herself, there will still be a negative body image that develops with the daughter, and if the mother is using a fad diet, or an unhealthy diet, then she is only teaching her daughter how to use a 'quick fix' that may not work and will lead to more body dissatisfaction.  In addition to this, the type of diet talk can be positive, if it is a healthy diet talk, rather than talk about eating less (Corning, Gondoli, Hillard, and Morrissey, 2015).  For this type of talk to have a positive influence, however, there must only be discussion of eating healthy and nutritious food, and there cannot be any talk of eating significantly less, or less than the recommended daily caloric intake.  Last, friendships and peer relationships can be seen as a positive influence for young girls because they allow these girls to be social and connect with people of their same age.  It is important for them to feel comfortable and connected with people of their own age who are going through the same changes that they are.  These relationships, however, become negative when teasing and expression of body concerns come into play.  The connection that a girl feels to her friends and peers can quickly result in her comparing herself to others and feeling as if she is not as good as them.   Ultimately, these 'positive influences' that come out of the relationships girls have are not always positive because of the limits that come with them.

In discussing all of the negative effects that important relationships have on adolescent girls, there must be somewhere to go from here.  There is, and it involves parents becoming more involved in their daughters' lives.  Mothers can work on finding different ways to approach their daughter about body-related issues through prevention and intervention programs (Corning, Gondoli, Hillard, and Morrissey, 2015).  These programs are meant to help prevent girls from going down the paths that lead to eating disorders and to help those girls that are already on these paths.  Fathers can be more attentive to how they are responding to women in the media, and being aware that their daughters are listening (Heubeck, 2006).  They can recognize what type of shows and magazines they are watching and reading, and/or leave lying around the house, knowing that their daughter will see them.  Parents together can involve positive characteristic attributes into conversation in addition to positive physical attributes, such as being smart and beautiful (Anderson, 2007).  This allows girls to recognize that they are worth more than their physical appearance.  They can also keep their daughters busy with enrichment activities and sports, as well as getting them involved in positive organizations that focus on development of character rather than appearance (Ferguson).  Education for body confidence is also something that can be done to help these girls.  Parents must emphasize on health rather than weight, and they need to step up and be better role models, avoiding 'fat talk' so negative messages aren't passed down to their daughters (Culp-Ressler, 2015, Ramsey, 2014, and Wallace, 2015).  Overall, parents need to intervene in their daughters live more, giving them the tools to develop a positive self-image, because if they don't, then issues like eating disorders and excessive exercise that lead to malnutrition are only going to continue to grow, as they have been doing over the past few decades.

Having looked at the close and important relationships that adolescent girls develop throughout their lives, it can be seen that body image is greatly influenced.  The everyday interactions that girls have with their parents and peers, which are meant to build girls up, end up giving them low self-esteem.  Mothers usually aren't able to recognize that they are creating a problem when they openly critique not only their daughter's body, but their own bodies as well.  They don't understand that every word that comes out of their mouths is noticed by their young girl, and when it is all negative self-talk, she learns how to see herself in only a negative light.  This leads to her negative body image, and creates a cycle that will be translated from daughter to daughter in each generation.  Fathers also don't think about the way that they influence their daughters.  When they treat women as objects and only react positively to thin women, girls pick up on it and they believe that men will only react positively to them if they are thin.  This is terrible for the girl's self-image, and she will try to do anything she can in order to be thin enough for a man's ideal body standards.  Last, peers give girls a negative body image through the constant criticism combined with the comparisons that girls make.  Girls feel as if they are always being evaluated and that they need to be accepted by their peers to be 'popular', which will result in negativity toward their bodies.  All of these sacred relationships that adolescent girls have can be empowering and wonderful, but this is impossible when girls are constantly surrounded by negativity regarding women and the standards that are being set by their parents and peers. 


