Living in the digital age means having nearly unlimited access to information of all kinds. Advertising and media companies target specific audience types and age groups to market products and generate sales. As a teen growing up in the middle of this informational overload, I have experienced the effects of media influence first hand. Being an adolescent is hard enough without adding pressures that constant media exposure adds to the mix. One of the most influential outlets of media comes from print and digital advertising being generated by the fashion industry. In a world where we are exposed to thousands upon thousands of different types of media and advertisements that promote unrealistic beauty standards, how can we, as consumers, protect ourselves from the adverse affects they can have on our body image? The simple answer is that we cannot. With the constant overexposure to media, the psychological affects coupled with it are inevitable The most affective way to combat the level of influence media has in the fashion industry and its consumers is for the media of fashion and its consumers to take more responsibility for the affect it has on body image and to implement changes that can lessen these consequences in future generations, especially when it is targeting the impressionable teenage audience. This can be achieved by acknowledging the large amount of influence fashion media has on body image and creating more body-positive campaigns and conversations from popular fashion labels, evaluating and limiting the amount of photo-shopping advertising companies use on their photos, and promoting more diversity and realistic beauty standards among print and high-fashion models. These changes are important because they can lead to a major shift in the current beauty standards that are portrayed in the fashion world and its far-reaching media outlets, and make the entire industry a much more relatable and positive place for self-expression.

 First and foremost, is in important to note just how much power and reach the fashion industry has, especially in relation to the female audience. Many scientific studies identify exposure to mass media as a leading cause of low self-esteem and eating disorders in people, particularly female adolescents. According to a national ad by DoSomething.org, over 90% of females admit to trying some sort of diet in their lifetime. (DoSomething.org). At a very young age, females are, for the most part, already being indoctrinated with the expectation that they should conform to the beauty norms of their society. Some girls as young as ten years old admitting to thinking poorly of their body image. Many females acknowledge the major role that the media and its beauty standards played in their decision to diet in the first place, describing themselves as "imperfect" or "unattractive". The addition of advertisements and beauty product campaigns only increases this idea and encourages the behavior of young females to grow into the "ideal woman". If the fashion industry and the media outlets connected to it would take more responsibility and acknowledge just how much influence they have on the body-image and psychology of females, many of the solutions to this issue would follow after. 

The use of photoshop in advertising has become a controversial topic, especially when it comes to the manipulation of models and celebrities featured in magazines and online ads. According to statistics from DoSomething.org, women are more likely to consume more media and those who do are more likely to place an emphasis on their appearances (DoSomething.org). Unfortunately, most of the media they are consuming consists of retouched photos of models and celebrities who do not naturally look like that. Most models who rely on these photos as a form of employment have little to say about photo retouching in order to keep getting jobs and show loyalty to the industry, however, some models and celebrities have spoken out against photoshop by starting body-positive campaigns and creating dramatic "before and after" photos exposing how much editing actually goes into advertisements. According to an article on the media and body image featured in Horizons magazine, author Shari Graydon mentions celebrity Kate Winslett, who demanded an explanation for why she was so heavily airbrushed while being featured on a magazine cover (Graydon, 18). Some brands like Aerie have decided to only use original photos and hire women who are not in the fashion industry at all. If more influential figures would take a stand against the unrealistic editing being implemented on the majority of advertisements and print journalism, others would be inspired to not tolerate this type of propaganda anymore. 

When exposed to these heavily edited photos, consumers have no way of knowing how unreal these pictures are in comparison to the original ones. Ultimately, consumers end up comparing themselves to the doctored photo and ask the question, "why don't I look like that?" These feelings leave consumers with an unrealistic standard of beauty and body image to aspire to. In a field study conducted by Eric Kee featured in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Kee found that more people showed signs of low self-esteem when they were shown a retouched photo than when they were shown the original photo. In order to combat this problem, advertisements that choose to include edited photos should be required to label them as being altered and retouched (Kee 1). Politicians across Europe and the United States have been lobbying to implement this idea into official legislation, asking for better regulation of advertisements and repercussions for those who do not follow suit (Erlanger). This idea has sparked a world-wide debate with some defending that advertising and photography are a form of artwork, while others think if it is being peddled to the masses, it should show nothing but what naturally and realistically occurs. Those in favor of the policy change claim that the label leads to a better understanding of the artwork in the photo while not creating any misleading conclusions to be drawn from it. Including a label or warning at the bottom of the photo or ad will allow the consumer to recognize that the photo is not an accurate portrayal of the model or its product, and in turn will lessen the comparisons between the consumer and the promoter in the advertisement. 

Models and fashion labels are not just appearing in magazines anymore and are more accessible than ever before. They are featured in pop-up ads, fill up entire internet windows in online shops, and carry celebrity status by their cult-like following on social media feeds like Twitter and Instagram and are being treated as celebrities with cult-like followings on their platforms. They post about every detail of their lavishly wild lifestyle and share tiny insights into their "secrets to success". All of this happens while the models simultaneously trick consumers into thinking that the brand or product has something to do with the success portrayed by people who are being paid to advertise them. All of these factors make the fashion industry infinitely more influential and create the perfect recipe for "outsiders" to the industry, mainly consumers, much more susceptible to the effects that this constant access can bring, among both print and high-fashion models. The main problem with this kind of advertising is the lack of varying weights and sizes of the models who are trying to relate to the "average female". Many modeling agencies aim to hire a very particular type of person. This "cookie-cutter" model tends to be a white female with an above average height and below average weight. While there is a growing demand for more diversified models, many agencies are keeping their standard look the same. In Rhona MacDonald's article, "To Diet For," featured in the British Medical Journal, a consumers over-exposure to the thin appeal in magazines, causes a psychological reaction connected to a person's need to diet and obsess over weight and the growing trend of eating disorders (MacDonald, 1002). By including a wider variety of weights and looks, the beauty standards set forth by these models would become much more attainable to consumers. A good example of this would be the growing acceptance of "plus-sized" models-- models who wear a size ten or higher, and the gradual fade of the negative stigma that is attached to the word "plus-size." This year, Ashley Graham, a size twelve model, became the very first plus-sized model to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. This revolutionary magazine cover was flooded with positive feedback and appreciation from its audience (Chan). If more magazines joined this movement the positive effects of it would be overwhelming. 

The diversity issue in models does not stop at weight and height. The more well-known and featured models are also normally of similar lifestyles and societal roles. According to Dr. Cortney S. Warren, advertisements start to affect girls' aspirations and understanding of gender roles at a very young age (Warren.) One photo can inspire or discourage its consumer in many different ways. In the Vagina Chronicles podcast by Angela Stoner and Nicole Masters, the two discuss how easily the media can affect the self-esteem of females by misrepresenting many of the things being a woman should entail (Stoner and Masters). In short, young girls look up to prominent figures in the media and aspire to live like them, but what most of what they see are not women in very empowering roles. Philippa Roxby, a health writer for BBC, claims that the "answer to body anxiety is to showcase a more diverse range of bodies in the media because there is not just one way to be healthy or one ideal look (Roxby.)" Most advertisements feature models living lives of luxury, including a perfectly thin physique, large and lavish homes, tropical backdrops, and handsome male models. While these types of ads appeal to the desires of most women, they do not accurately represent the reality in which most women live. The social media accounts of the more well-known models use to promote their products are no different. The only difference is that these are even more deceptive because social media websites are supposed to portray our "real lives." Although many consumers are perfectly fine with aspiring to be just like these advertisements and models, there is an increasing demand for more realistic women to appear for fashion campaigns and advertisments. While the fashion industry continues to lack a diverse employment field, according the the Business of Fashion, the scope of consumers in high-end fashion is "more diverse than ever before (Pike.)" By creating a more diversified industry of models, more and more women could be inspired to be themselves instead of feeling the need to conform to one person's idea of what a women should be. 

On the opposing side of this argument is Erica Goode, a psychology writer for the New York Times. Along with other skeptics, Goode claims that while controlled lab experiments will show some correlation between self-esteem and advertisements, any research done in a "real-world environment" would show little to no correlation between the two (Goode.) However, Shari Graydon claims that many scholarly studies state that women are "[increasingly dissatisfied] with themselves," especially after being exposed to "unrealistically thin and beautiful models (Graydon 19.)" Also mentioned in Philippa Roxby's article, "Does Social Media Impact on Body Image?" Caroline Nokes, an activist and leader of a popular body image campaign in Great Britain, states that most girls she talks to admit to looking up to and aspiring to look like the models and figures they see in magazines, especially those who are regularly featured in magazines and social media outlets. Nokes works to educate the girls on the manipulation of the photos they are inspired by (Roxby.) While some will try to debate that there is little evidence supporting these claims, most scholarly articles and scientific research are at a consensus that media plays a large role in the self-esteem and psychological development of adolescents, especially females. 

Another common area of debate on the topic is whether or not there is any correlation between eating disorders and media. Margarita Tartakovsky, an editor for PsychCentral say that is a "common misconception" that the fashion industry plays any part in the growing epidemic of eating disorders (Tartakovsky.) Jane Callaghan, a writer for the Independent, also argues against the role of fashion in eating disorders. Callaghan claims that when we blame the fashion industry for the increase in eating disorders among females, we are overlooking the true reasons behind it and letting one group of people take the blame for something that derives from a number of different issues and complications, such as genetic history and peer-influence (Callaghan). However, according to Sharon Graydon's from Horizons, several instances occurring in the past few years where models have died from severe eating disorders that derived from them being encouraged by their employers to lose weight quickly to book a job are cited (Graydon, 20). Graydon goes on to report on France's recently passed legislation implementing a minimum BMI and required psychological evaluations for any models who would be walking the runway. This policy resulted from a recent surge in eating disorders and major weight related health risks among high-fashion models that were often being indirectly encouraged by executives in the fashion industry and the large audience expected to turn out at Paris Fashion Week. In an industry where dangerously low body weight is not only celebrated but virtually demanded, it is hard to combat this trend without implementing an actually policy, which is why France acted in the way it did. Many other countries such as England and Canada have praised France for the initiative and are following in their footsteps. Graydon's article also cites a statistic from the Canadian Medical Association Journal that states that one in three girls admit they are trying to lose weight, and one in ten show symptoms of struggling with an eating disorder. With the growing trend of eating-disorders continuing to be a problem amongst females, it is only natural to conclude that the eating habits and appearances of the models of whom they look up to would reflect onto consumers and inspire them to take similar actions. 

When we take into consideration just how large of a role the media and advertising plays in our life, it is nearly impossible to argue that they do not affect us in some way or another. For some, fashion and the industry it involves is simply an outlet for creativity, but for others, models, fashion and the latest trends can become a dangerous breeding ground for envy, unfair comparisons and low-esteem. In this day and age, it is seemingly impossible to escape the influence that the media, particularly the media of the fashion industry, has on its consumers. The fashion industry reaches far beyond the high-fashion magazines it used to be limited to. Now between unlimited access to online shopping and the surge in fashion labels appearing on social media platforms, the fashion industry and its media outreach are more accessible than ever. This is why it is extremely important that both sides of this debate, the media and the consumers, take some responsibility for the adverse effects that are happening. In order to protect future generations from this conflict we must get to the root of the problem and begin solving it. The fashion industry should recognize how far its influence goes and use that to promote positive messages. There should be an increase in campaigns that promote realistic and positive beauty standards that are attainable for everyone and there should also be much more regulation of print media and advertising. In addition, the fashion industry as a whole should become much more diverse by hiring a broader scope of models that comes from different backgrounds and lifestyles, including race, socioeconomic status, and outer appearances like height and weight. If the right changes are made and are implemented with serious effort, there will be an abundance of positive outcomes and a better chance for higher self-esteem and self-worth in younger generations. 

