Growing up as a child, girls were prone to have certain items in their childhood.  Including dresses, jewelry, and make up.  Little girls were encouraged to dress up as princesses and to always look their best when guest arrived at the house or just to impress a boy.  As girls matured in age, they were more likely to not focus on education or their future endeavors, but to spend more time and energy on their appearance.  Who is to blame for this outlook on this kind of life style? Society.  However, since the world is evolving, slowly but surely, many people have seen the flaws in this action.  More women are being brought up into this world with determination to work hard and focus to accomplish their goals.  Nevertheless, the media also has a large impact on this matter. The media today portrays women as being shown as an object of desire; objectifying the body and making it seem as though appearance is the only achievement to be set in one’s life (Weber).  

Nowadays, the social media can affect adolescents in a negative way because of the lack of self-confidence that emits from viewing the images, the eating disorders that come into playing in the long-term effect, and because the media has a way to make young females feel unwanted.  The modern-day media has a role in the lives of young women in a negative way, by affecting the individual’s self-confidence and body-image.  A girl has either a negative distorted view of her physical appearance or she feels positive about the way she looks and is comfortable in her own body.  The most mutual perspective of how girls think of their body image looks is unfortunately negative.  In the study of theory, young women tend to think that celebrities’, models’, and television stars’ bodies are the only way that they should appear (Perloff).  Unfortunately, it is physical impossible to become a look in a magazine photoshoot naturally, there must be some sort of modification.  The ongoing exposure of an unrealistic body image can deceive what is reality.  Some people believe that these young adolescents get the standards of “beautiful” from their peers, friends, and family, but, in reality, the girls get these standards from the media.

There is a quote that many people have referenced to friends and family members, which states that, “beauty is not what you see on the outside, it is what lies within”.  This is what we are taught throughout our childhood.  However, researchers, Inbal Gurari, John J. Hetts, and Michael J. Strube claim that “by the time a person is in their teens, they have seen thousands of advertisements in the media, which put a stress on having the ‘perfect image’” (Gurari).  These advertisements send a message that this is how women are supposed to look like and what they should strive to be.  When women see these advertisements, many times they feel ashamed that they do not look the way that the models do; and this ultimately results in depression and lack of self-confidence.  The use of the images, the display of life-styles, and the reinforcement of values, advertisements are communicators of culturally defined concepts such as success, worth, love, popularity, and normality.  Especially to the teenagers, attractiveness equals higher chances of popularity.  Which sadly, is what they often think about.  Of concern over the past two decades has been excessive use of sexual stereotypes, especially of women.  Women are directly affected by this advertising, beyond the desire to purchase the product or service described.  The influence of the media on people is incredible, yet frightening, and the effect of advertisements that have images of beauty, and the perfect slim figure have a damaging effect on a great deal of the world’s population.  In the end, when people view advertisements, many begin to question themselves and how they look. 

There are many factors that come in to play regarding the side effects of maintaining the ideal body image.  Young women are always looking up to images of celebrities in advertisements and commercials and therefore, have struggled with body expectation and self-confidence.  The media is a huge factor that weighs in different perspectives of models and celebrities that young women across the globe are apparently supposed to mirror.  In today’s society, mass media creates unrealistic body images of women not ever being thin or flawless enough.  Advertising companies overly edit and photo shop images of women to create the so-called perfection that is the norm in the advertising world.  These images of the assumed perfect body, sends negative messages and creates insecurities amongst many women.  As the media uses unrealistic models to advertise its products and services, this sets the idea that the ideal women must be “unhealthily thin and blemish free” (Dakanalis).  Fashion magazines and body image research indicates that exposure to thin ideal images in women’s magazines is associated with heightened concerns for body shape and size in several young women, although the media’s role in the psychopathology of body image disturbance is generally believed to be mediated by personality and socio-cultural factors.

In the novel, Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women’s Lives, the author, Autumn White-field, states that the beauty and body advertisements can actually help women.  The idea of having a healthy and strong body can set goals for women and assist them with achieving their body image targets.  Looking at those images of models can ultimately represent inspiration for the eye of the beholder (Whitefield-Madrano 147).  Yet, this could still potentially become a problem when the view starts to doubt themselves and ends up discouraged.  When one looks at a model, the first instinct is to compare; it is a natural thing to do, however, many eventually look past the first looks, and can identify that they differ from the image in many ways.  The more the reader views and reads the articles in those fashion magazines, the more likely it is for them to start picking out their own flaws.  As tragic as this sounds, this is what the media wants.  Unintentionally, the media wants you to think that your features need highlighting and that is why they promoted products twenty-four seven.

Whitefield-Madrano also indicated that the media can “helps us know what is going on in the world, decide on places to go, where we should eat, and even for some, what and how much we eat”.  The media has come too far and is now affecting the way adolescents view themselves.  The way the media is doing this is sometimes subtle and other times blatantly obvious.  We hear saying everyday such as, “looks do not matter; beauty is only skin-deep” or “it is what is on the inside that counts, not the outside”, yet we live in a society that contradicts this statement every day.  If appearances do not matter, then why are so many women poking and beating at themselves with make-up and make-up brushing, paying for expensive procedures, and plucking out every hair possibly seen by the human eye, if they are not satisfied with how they look.  It all depends on personal preference of course; however, if looks do not matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide the flaws of celebrities and models (Spurr).  One reason is because the media is establishing unattainable standards for the body.  Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have videos and articles on how to get the perfect body.  Some articles are very helpful; for example, texts about how eating the right foods could help you lose weight or simple workouts to get a flatter stomach or even a bigger butt.  Though these readings may help the end goal, they are harming your body.  The diets that women usually take on are not good for your body. 

Today, women are infatuated with being thin and petite.  It seems like women all want to reach a certain size, size zero.  Becoming a size zero is not an accomplishment! It can be very dangerous if women are starving themselves just to reach a number.  People must realize that happiness is not a number and that they are absolutely not a number.  In Antonios Dakanalis’ study about eating disorders, he took 718 adolescents between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, and interviewed them.  He asked questions regarding their weight, height, and if they feel comfortable in their own body.  He later calculated the numbers he was given and concluded, with all the responses recorded and documented, that there was a problem with body shaming.  These adolescents admitted to wanting to change the way they looked and wanting to look like a different person at times.  Dakanalis also had results that lead to eating disorders.  While there is correlation between body shaming, depression, and anxiety, there is no full proof evidence that developing eating disorders is also in that connection as well.  During this study however, the adolescents did develop bulimia and anorexia.  With average weights, most of the adolescents admitted having not been eating regular meals or portions, or on the other hand, not being able to stop eating due to depression and anxiety.  

Media can affect many people’s lives, good and bad; no one really thinks about it, but the media can affect the school system as well.  Kelsey Hibberd, founder of Loud Education, has had her fair share of media mishaps.  Growing up, Hibberd was not the prettiest of her classmates; and that really bothered her.  She told the interviewer, Philippa Roxby, “I intentionally kept my Facebook friends to a minimum because I knew they were the ones who wouldn't pick on me” (Roxby).  Even though her pain was not always formed by the media, her classmates labeled her as a burden.  She eventually gave into the peer pressure and started to change her look; cutting and dying her hair, dressing more up to date with the help of fashion magazines, and began going on diets.  Hibberd has now overcome that part in her life and is now running a program that help those adolescents with the same problems she had.  

With this program, Loud Education, Hibberd goes into several schools and holds discussions with students and teachers about what body confidence is and how they can deal with issues pertaining self-confidence.  Hibberd also explains that when helping the pupils she voices, “you put forward your best self, and that can be a bit dangerous, because you naturally compare yourself to others; but you must overcome that urge and just be yourself” (Roxby).  Hibberd’s goal is to train teachers on how to react to these body issues in the classroom; the real issue is not the media, although it does have some part to it.  Hibberd recalls that, “everyone has been affected by the media in some way, shape or form, so my end goal is to educate the children to make them more cynical about the images they see and admire, and to work with retailers and businesses to encourage them to be more responsible in their advertising” (Roxby).

When dealing with the young women on this planet, most spectators discuss the short term.  Many believe that the media can only effect one for short periods of time; however, that is not the case.  In many circumstances, the media effects long term as well, and not in a good way.  Eating disorders can come and go with time; however, in most cases, there is a high chance that eating disorders never go away without therapy.  Researchers, Eaaron Henderson-King and Donna Henderson-King noticed from their study that, “overhearing such negative conversations precedes exposure to ideal media images, viewers should be even more susceptible to the negative effects of ideal images” (Henderson-King 402).  Women believe that if they do not look as thin or as pretty as others, then they are not a good person.  When people discuss about weight gain or loss, many start evaluating themselves.  This leads to either excessive gain, if one is depression, or excessive weight loss, if one is self-conscious to the way they look around their peers.

Cameron Russell, an American fashion model, performed a TED Talk on the topic of beauty.  From the looks of an average person, it is common to want to become a model because of the benefits.  These benefits may include free items, free passes to important events, or just the fact that you will always be beautiful to the eyes of the public.  Russell automatically shut down this idea.  She states that even though she may get free things in life, she will never be herself because of this job (Russell).  She goes further and explains that that is, in fact, not her body on the front cover of a Vogue magazine.  Instead, it is a reconstructed image.  Usually, every single image in a magazine or advertisement is retouched by photo shop.  She further explains that “even though you may think I am confident about my body because I am featured on many covers on magazines, but as funny as that is, I am very insecure about the way I look” (Russell).  Because an abundance of people knows this fact already, there should not be any surprise when this is said.  It amazes researchers when adolescents want to look just like those “models” on the cover of magazines.  Researchers Inbal Gurari, John J. Hetts, and Michael J. Strube, stated in their study that “many women want to become models just for the looks aspect, however, it is highly unattainable”.  Many corrections go into a picture and by that point it does not look natural anymore.  It is impossible for an adult not to have some flaws, therefore, the pictures in the advertisements are not real images of people. 

Now that society is evolving, there have been improvements to the modeling world.  They are featuring plus size models.  In Russell’s speech, she brought up the topic of changing the way people viewed models.  She preached that “you do not know me for who I am, you know me by the way I appear on magazines” (Russell).  She showcased at the beginning of her speech that she could change the audience’s opinion of her in the matter of six seconds but simply changing her clothes.  People are now realizing that “pretty” comes in different looks, structures, and sizes.  The media has taken a huge stand with this movement and it makes their audience more likely to buy their products or services.  

There are many ways to become beautiful and there are many ways to be beautiful.  In many countries, beautiful can be different looks and colors.  In each country, city, or town, beauty is based on its culture, and every culture is diverse.  But, it is up to the individual to decide what beautiful is.  Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes; each individual will never look the same.  So, why does everyone make a big fuss over the way they look?  The media is slowly becoming aware of how they make others feel about their bodies and is changing.  Society is also changing the way they look at women; and now, it is the time for everyone to change the way they look at women.  The media can be a nasty place to discover who a person truly is; therefore, people should look within themselves to find the perfect version of them.
