For adolescent girls, puberty is mostly a time of confusion and stress often impacted by the society and cultures in which they live in. In America, this time of change and internal struggles is highlighted by the overexposure to mass media. A young girl must face many obstacles and during this time of growing in the adolescent stage will begin to develop self-esteem, forever determining how she views herself and her worth. Mass media is a major factor in influencing self-esteem in adolescent girls and despite movements such as Body Positivity it is affecting self-esteem overall in a negative light; ruining the body image most adolescents hold and are developing. 

 One of the biggest problems in society even outside of adolescence is the obsession with celebrities in the media. It is easy to find magazines everywhere shouting about which celebrity lost weight or got a nose job, or even TV commercials with airbrushed girls poised to show the media’s ideal standard of beauty. In an academic journal written by Jennifer Escalas and James Bettman, it is thought that consumers (the people watching celebrities) often associate their own identities with what is portrayed by these celebrities we see in mass media (Escalas, 298). The study claims that high need consumers look to celebrities to a greater extent for this purpose (Escalas, 298). Adolescents are among the major group who watch these celebrities and therefore become exactly the kind of high need consumers who associate their own identities (which are continuously developing at this stage) with those identities seen portrayed by celebrities in the media.

In an article written by Chung-kue Hsu in a popular teen magazine, Seventeen, social media is drawn upon as one of the platforms used in mass media to promote celebrity image and what teens must do to achieve the ideal standard in the media. It is quoted that, “teen girls are said to rely on magazines as a sounding board, fashion and beauty consultant, and close confidant.” (Hsu) In the media, especially social media with apps such as Snapchat allowing teenagers to add their favorite celebrities and watch their lives on a more personal level, girls are able to see exactly how a celebrity is rewarded based on money and power as well as the posse they have surrounding them at any given time. These adolescents then are able to think of these celebrities and the media as a “close confidant” and someone to advise them on what to wear, how to act, etc. Because of this they take in whatever is portrayed by said celebrities and if that idea being portrayed is one that mirrors body image it is possible that they will begin to compare the body they have to those seen on their favorite celebrities.

This idea is mimicked in the study entitled Waif Goodbye! Average-Size Female Models Promote Positive Body Image And Appeal to Consumers in which women were given images to look at which featured ads in which models who were thin, average, or not there at all. When surveying the women later the study found that women often correlated feeling bad about their own bodies when looking at thinner models than looking at ads with average size models. This study supports the idea of self-esteem because if ideas of not looking good whilst looking at the models chosen in these ads are already in women naturally then they will continue to grow and spread in a young mind which is much more susceptible than adult minds are. 

As Hsu presents the detrimental effects of Snapchat, she also points out that physical attractiveness is a huge driving factor in why celebrities are so influential in adolescent lives. Physical attractiveness is highly sought after by teenage girls and advertisers frequently employ beautiful female celebrities in advertising to promote products to teen girls. Basically dangling the bone before the dog and sending out the message to these girls that if they buy these products and strive to be like the celebrities they see on television then they too can be as successful and simply pretty as the celebrities depicted are. They can hold the lifestyle, the friends, and the looks that everybody seems to love about certain celebrities and then in turn be treated in the same mannerisms. Hsu says that “female teens use the idealized images portrayed in advertising as input during the self-construction process, contributing to the way they perceive what is acceptable, normative, or perfect.” (Hsu) The adolescents are using the images portrayed to them to determine what is normal and perfect so when they see celebrities who look completely thin and toned they expect themselves to look the same way. When the young girl’s body does not measure up it in turn becomes a self-image issue and lowers her self-esteem as she continuously compares herself to what she sees all of the time.

In fact, in a study done by Brenda Wiederhold, it is reported that adolescents tend to have more of an Internet addiction than other people. (Wiederhold, 259) Whether this is because it is more accessible to younger generations because of advances in technology than it was in older generations is unclear. However, Internet search engines such as Yahoo have ready access to articles about celebrities on their homepage, leading adolescents to click on them and further the problem. Wiederhold also notes that adolescents who are addicted to the Internet and its contents often show dysfunctional coping methods at home. (Wiederhold, 259) This makes it harder for these adolescents to develop the habits needed to deal with the pressures of adolescence and to deal with any negative thoughts that may develop concerning body image. The affects of this makes it even harder to recover from a low self-esteem in turn beginning a vicious cycle which affects young girls over and over again as they grow.

 The effect of mass media and pushing celebrities on teenage girls is very harmful to girls going through puberty. The teenagers in society are so overexposed to celebrities and the power the celebrities seem to hold at younger and younger ages that the teens in turn are constantly striving to change themselves in ways that are often harmful to their mental or physical health. The society, which cultivates these ideals, is not the entire one that adolescents live in. In fact in recent years a new campaign has begun called “Body Positivity”. The idea behind these campaigns are to change the “norm” of most mass media, turning ads into things holding more average looking models to promote better self-esteem in young adolescents. In a study done by Kristina Holmqvist and Ann Friesen it is noted that there is a psychology called positive psychology in which people focus on well-being, strengths, and happiness (Holmqvist, 388). However the authors do admit “the ideas of positive psychology have had little penetrating power within the body image field” (Holmqvist, 389). So despite campaigns for Body Positivity, it is very hard to change thought processes in adolescent from focusing on the bad aspects of their image than on the good aspects.

Jaleesa Jones also wrote an article about Body Positivity in which she discusses how Body Positivity has begun to spread into more mainstream pop culture and the media. She discusses major “wins” for these campaigns in which women of every size are beginning to be able to more enviable acting roles and how models who are older and of different body sizes are being featured in modeling which is directed around empowering women. However, even Jaleesa thinks the conversation is far from over and admits that even though we have made significant strides  “to some, body positivity is just a small step toward eventually embracing body neutrality, where bodies are accepted as-is without a positive or negative focus.” (Jones, 1) The argument behind body positivity is a good one – yet it is hard to say that the work is over and the issue of self-esteem is still one that is affecting young adolescents. Mass media is amazing technology. People can communicate faster than ever, a wealth of knowledge is at society’s fingertips daily, and society is beginning to become more aware of many cultural issues. The generations after us are growing up with more and more technology and ways to express their own emotions. However in a world where they must always be “on” for social media, there is not enough time for adolescents to take a breath and step back from the world that constantly needs things from them. With all of the knowledge available, images of thin models that are airbrushed and posted onto magazines and Internet articles are larger than ever and our adolescents are suffering because of it. If there is not a positive image set in front of young girls all the time instead of some of the time the decrease in good self-esteem will forever reach an all time low. As a society we must turn our focus to promoting good self-image and not conforming to the ideals pressed by the media. 
