     Meet Rachel. She stood 5 feet and 4 inches tall and weighed 123 pounds. She had long blonde hair and bright green eyes. She had an olive tint to her skin that was always highlighted with rays from the sun resulting from her constant desire to be out on the lake. She maintained good grades, had a close group of friends, and was always looking for some form of adventure. You never met a person who did not love Rachel Cline. She made everyone feel like they belonged in this world and she made everyone feel like they were someone special. It was her sophomore year, at age 16 when Rachel made a new friend. Her name was Ana and from the beginning we all knew that she was toxic. Rachel repeatedly warned us that she was okay and not to worry about her. But before we knew it, Ana singlehandedly sucked the passion out of a life right out of the girl we all loved. At first we did not know how to address Rachel. Was this friend serious? Was she permanent? We all wondered when was the time to tell her family that Ana was not leaving and that Ana was dangerous. When her parents finally found out, it was unfortunately too late. She stood 5 feet and 4 inches tall and now weighed 99 pounds. Her long hair was short of health and her eyes lacked their famous shine. Her skin was pale and thin. At first, Ana only made her skip lunch, but then she made her skip school. Days went by and we would not see Rachel. Rachel told us Ana started making her go to the doctor's office with her and that is why she missed so much school. She stopped talking to her friends, she started fighting with her parents, and her relationship only grew with Ana. Before Rachel even knew what was happening, Ana had become apart of her. 

     Meet Ana. Ana is not a friend; she is solely a personified version of anorexia. Girls with this disorder often refer to their disorder as a girl named "Ana" to hide their situation. For example, "Ana made me not eat" or "Ana was the reason I spent the night in the hospital." Rachel, over time, had developed anorexia disorder and what seemed like a friendship with Ana only grew into something so much more dangerous. Ana taught the girl who loved herself and loved others something she had never known how to do before. She revealed to her how to hate. She made her hate her arms, her legs, her stomach, her face. She opened Rachel's eyes to jealousy. She pressured her to hate others that were skinnier than her. She introduced her to sadness and depression and self-hatred. Where did Ana come from? Where did Ana get the right to tear my best friend's vibrant life right out of her hands and replace it with one that was crumpled and gray? This person she thought was so good for her only ever took from her. She stole 24 pounds from her and replaced it with misery. She took away two years of her life and filled these years with therapy, doctor's appointments, skipped meals, fighting with the people she loves most, and lost experiences. After two extensive years of battling her anorexia disorder, Rachel has been healthy for a year now continuing to work towards her goal of getting herself back to loving herself and having the positive body image she had before Ana dimmed her view.

     These body image problems Rachel went through are extremely common amongst women, especially college women. Body image is the reflection of how personally appealing one identifies themselves as. People have a range of extremely positive body image to extremely negative body image. Whether positive or negative, body image is how in control we feel with our body. It is the difference between confidence and doubt. Negative body image is characterized by people believing their looks do not adequately meet the standards of their loved ones or society's expectations portrayed through the media. This negative body image can lead to illnesses like body dysmorphic disorder, body integrity identity disorder, and eating disorders. Negative body image is an issue that is very much prevalent in the lives of college women. So what is the ultimate cause of this issue? The argument is that media glamorizes negative body image and promotes eating disorders. The media gives girls a mindset that to be someone worth looking at, you have to be skinny. This way of thinking turned my best friend's world upside down. If the media glamorizes negative body image to society, then a solution must be directly made in the college women to overcome the media and learn. What can give girls, especially college girls like Rachel, a reason to love themselves, and to love the way they look at their bodies?

     The relationship of body image and media is an idea that many people have been arguing in history. There are distinct positions held in this question and arguments that use positives and negatives from each position. Authors argue that models are extremely thin and seeing this thinness affects college women. Alicia James Scott proves in her YouTube documentary "Body Image Affected By Media" that "eight out of ten women are not happy with their body [and] 68% of women say they feel worse about their appearance after looking through a magazine. Authors counter that argument by saying celebrities come out with messages portraying positivity in women's outlook on their body. Other conversations include the pressure media puts on the models in the actual industry. Authors include examples from models in the industry and their feelings of pressure and their own body image, no matter how small they already are. They argue that Vogue will keep releasing magazines whether or not the model weighs 15 pounds more and fashion weeks will still be put on if the models were a normal size. The pressure lies within the industry and media exploits the pressures into the public. So many factors influence negative body image including culture, female, and society. With that in mind, many believe media is the leading cause in negative body image and eating disorders. Others argue that media should not be held responsible for eating disorders because there is a lack of evidence provided to the public. While other authors offer ample amounts of evidence including real life statistics of women whose body image has been negatively affected by the media. If media glamorizes negative body image to society, then a solution must be made in women to be able to look at the media and overcome its unrealistic expectations. There is so much at stake with this topic because it is a moral issue relevant to people's health. Negative body image is not only an emotional problem but it develops into a psychological disorder that is extremely detrimental to the human body. This is an issue that affects people from teens to adults in society and it is an issue that is extremely relevant to today's time. Changing the mindset to a realistic and positive one especially in terms of body image rather than negative ones would be more than beneficial to the mental, emotional, and physical health of society. 

     Jennifer Deanne, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavior medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, states "standards of beauty are constantly changing, are never realistic, and depend heavily on social context". This claim relates to every day struggle of body expectations in college women who are deeply affected by the media and society's high standards of beauty. Living with three girls in college has only opened my eyes to the extreme problem, that is, negative body image. We look in a mirror and we say "my stomach is huge", "my thigh gap is non existent", "I'm literally so fat" and the list goes on and on. For us, our negative body image is an obstacle that bothers us daily but with disappears with our confidence. We go to the gym once in a while and we eat ice cream a lot. We get over the fact that our thighs touch a little too closely and a little too often and our stomach may have a few too many rolls.  For other college women, this is not the case. For example, the night of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. A night where girls crowd around a television and wish that they were the "perfect" girls prancing across the stage in the bright lights and limited clothing. This night is one of many where girls examine their flaws and compare them to the beautiful (and airbrushed) Victoria Secret Models. After this, college women attempt to perform the Victoria's Secret full-body workout and the Victoria's Secret Diet plan. The 5'10 and 100-pound model explains that if you eat (or not eat) like her and workout like her you can even look like her. These Victoria's Secret Models have only been trained to be thinner as the time has gone on. Nanci Hellmich, an author for The Culture of Beauty, reported that "A former Victoria's Secret model, Frederique van der Wal, attended designers' shows during New York's Fashion Week this month [September 2006], she was "shocked" by the waiflike models who paraded down the catwalk. They seemed even skinnier than in previous years." (Hellmich). This is a perfect example of how the girls are so hard on themselves and the times have only increasingly gotten worse. These unrealistically high standards begin the vicious mental issue of negative body image.  This negative body image can turn into body dysmorphia and eating disorders. The National Institute of Mental Health and the Nation Center for Health Statistics states that "one in ten college women suffer from a clinical or nearly clinical eating disorder". The entertainment industry is glamorizing thinness through the portrayal of tiny models, resulting in college women lacking confidence and positive body image. 

     To counter this argument, some believe that the media does not influence eating disorders and argue that the role of thin models does not affect body dysmorphia in college women. Fred Schwarz, a deputy managing editor of National Review, claims "anorexia has flourished in many times and places with no mass media and no ideal of thinness." He argues that anorexia has been alive through history and cultures that were long before our "weight-obsessed, media-saturated society" (Schwarz). Another argument lies in blaming media for eating disorders makes the disease seem way less complex than it actually is.   Schwarz believes people undermine disorders by labeling "anorexia as a willful choice [and] not a complex disease." Sally Driscoll and Tamara Campbell, the authors of "Counterpoint: Body Image is Influenced by Many Factors, Not Just the Media" build on Schwarz's argument by adding that eating disorders are "mental illnesses related to a distorted body image that is believed by many doctors to be genetic, physiological, or related to low self-esteem often caused by a dysfunctional childhood". (Driscoll and Campbell). Driscoll and Campbell use their scientific complex reasoning to believe that is how eating disorders are formed "rather than an emotional reaction to the prevalence of too many ultra-thin supermodels". Both of these arguments are accurate depictions of how body dysmorphia may be a much larger problem than the media is capable of influencing.  

     In contrast to Schwarz, Jennifer Derenne wrote an article called "The Body Image Presented by the Media Promotes Disordered Eating". She believes "throughout history, the dominant political climate and cultural ideals have shaped the public's perception of the ideal female body type" (Derenne). Whereas, Schwarz argued there was a lack of social influence in history on the ideal of thinness. Derenne believes that in history, society always had standards of beauty but that "today's culture is unique in that the media is a far more presence than ever before". Although Derenne believes media is a prime factor is eating disorders, she agrees with Schwarz's argument about eating disorders being an extremely complex disease. She believes "it is tempting to blame today's media for perpetuating and glorifying unrealistic standards of physical beauty, the truth is far more complicated." If this is true, what does Rachel, the college girl who suffered anorexia believe?  

      There needs to be a solution to fight against what the media is doing and let it stop affecting these college women. Luckily, researchers have found multiple strategies to promote positive body image in women. Professor Allison Kelly of the Department of Psychology at Waterloo writes in the Mental Health Weekly Digest that "women may experience a more positive body image ... if they approach disappointments and distress with kindness and the recognition that these struggles are a normal part of life". If college women change their mindset to be kind to themselves and their bodies, positive body image with result. Professor Kelly also states that "[r]egardless of their weight, women with higher self-compassion have better body image and fewer concerns about weight, body shape or eating" and soon they will "acknowledge their bodies' imperfections and be okay with them" (Mental Health Weekly Digest). Studies show that writing positive notes on the mirror, complementing others, and constantly bringing yourself up, will allow one to overcome the trials of negative body image. Acknowledging that the women shown in media are extremely thin and deciding to continue on with a healthy lifestyle is the ultimate goal of defeating the media and its negative affect.

      In conclusion, college women are harassed by the internet, media, society, and entertainment industry with this idea that the standard of beauty revolves around being extremely thin. This ideal is posted on Facebook, all over television, throughout Pinterest boards, encouraged by Pro-Anorexia websites, and printed in magazines. How are college women supposed to thrive in their bodies when media gives them every reason to want to look different? Maybe eating disorders are a complex disease caused by physiological and mental illness, but there are other factors that are incorporated and that is where media plays a huge role. College women need to feel beautiful in their own bodies and loving what they have instead of trying to mimic what is shown so heavily through media. Women need to promote a positive and healthy atmosphere in life and be able to acknowledge their flaws and still be happy with themselves. 

