Body Image and Teengers

The flush of the toilet and the running of the taps being turned on and off filled the air, as girls amble into the bathroom stalls. Girls gather around the mirror fixing their hair, clothes and makeup. As more and more girls walk in, some of them exchange glances. Some will even cast their eyes up and down over the girls next to them, giving them the once over, judging them. For some girls, in trying to fix their hair, you could tell by the frown upon their faces that they are unhappy by what they see. “Do I look fat?” “Why am I so ugly?” “If only I was skinnier/taller/darker!” I wish I had clear skin!” Sound familiar? Well, these are things that many teenagers say to themselves. For some girls how they look and how they feel about themselves can impact them greatly. Many will lose confidence if they are not happy about their appearances especially for those that really see having the perfect body is of great importance. Their self-esteem suddenly becomes tied to how they look.

Indeed, as teenagers grow they tend to care about more on how they look, which all too often become their main focus.

Girl’s self-esteem begins to decline as early as at 5th grade. In one survey it was found that 59% of 5-12th grade girls were dissatisfied with their body shape and 47% of the same girls, said they wanted to lose weight because of photos they saw in magazines. There have been many studies on the effects of pop culture and social media exposure on body image and self esteem. Many of these studies suggest that they set unrealistic expectations about how they should look through the use of perfect looking models.

Most average teenagers get more than two hours of media exposure daily. Being exposed to so much media makes a huge impact on girls nowadays. Glamorised advertising of the perfect girl/women undermines a teenager’s confidence in and comfort with her own body, leading to anxiety, shame, and difficulty in developing a healthy body image and can impact on their self-esteem. Akanksha Shukla, a grade 8 student, makes a comment about the effects of social media, she says, “It makes girls feel like they aren’t enough and makes them feel like they have to aspire towards being like the female icons in films and magazines, which discourages us and gives us a false idea about what we should look like”. Images of tall, skinny beautiful girls and women are everywhere giving us a mental image of what an “ideal” girl/women should look like. When young teenagers look at these so called ‘role models’ they question why they don’t always look perfect and that leads to low self-esteem.

Teenagers with good self-esteem are often confident about themselves and are positive towards life. Teenagers with low self-esteem may not always feel confidant and like what they look like. They may have a poor sense of self worth and would find it hard to see that they are an important and a capable person. Body image is a major factor in self-esteem. Body image is how you see and feel about your body. Poor body image comes from negative thoughts and feelings about your appearance. Where as a healthy body image is made up of thoughts and feelings that are positive. Body image and self-esteem reflect each other. If you don’t like your body, it’s not easy to feel good about yourself.

It is hard for parents to know how to guide their children in the right direction so that they grow to be confident and secure of who they are and what they look like. Glamorised media exposure has been linked to eating disorders, low self-esteem and major depression or depressed mood, which is the most common mental health problem in girls and women. So what can parents do to ensure that this does not happen?

Parents can help their teenagers develop a positive attitude in a number of ways.

They should limit the amount of social media exposure and time spent looking at the TV and online. They should discuss body image issues and ensure that their children are aware that the images on TV and social media sites are glamorised and not realistic and encourage their child to be healthy by being positive in things that they do well in. Although the media, peers, and pop culture have a big influence on teens, parents are still more important when it comes to having an impact on their child’s developing self-esteem.

Other ways that they can help is not to talk about themselves and complain about their own appearance in front of the children, as they can pick up on these negative comments and subconsciously see them as being important, that having the perfect figure is something to strive towards because parents without knowing, are over emphasising the importance of looking good. Another thing is that parents should not be judgmental on their own children’s appearance as again it sends the wrong message. Instead of focusing on appearances, parents could focus on their efforts and what they have done either in school or in a sporting activity etc.

Although pop culture does glamorise people, teenagers need to be aware that it is very unrealistic and that they should work on developing a healthy attitude in their own life through their hobbies and things they enjoy doing in school and out. Girls need to realise that they are all unique individuals, and don’t have to be like everyone else. What matters is on the inside and not on the outside.'

Written by Elizabeth

What Are Weight Losing Companies Lying To You About?

It was a typical lunch. Girls and guys flocked the tent plaza socializing and chatting eagerly, the established cliques in their own territory, and other groups of friends floating in their respective packs. One such group sat down at an overcrowded table, with their lunch, and were chatting enthusiastically. They talked about everything and nothing, trivial facts about celebrities, the newest songs and maybe gossip about their fellow classmates. Soon, after many topics had come and gone, came up the topic of fat. With that topic came the “competition” to see who was fattest, the current winner complimenting her friends on their slimness, all the while saying “I really should go on a diet since I’m so fat. Do you know how heavy I am!”

Somehow along the way, people have started interpreting the word “heavy” with the word “fat”, even though fat is only a quarter of the weight of muscle. Another thing is seeing fat as a bad thing. Words like “bulky” or “fat” or “heavy” are used as insults, and some people are embarrassed to announce their weight in fear of judgement, even from a young age. In the renaissance period as well as the cultural revolution in China, being fat or a bit pudgy was seen as a good thing since it meant you had enough to eat. It seems being fat was only seen as a bad thing in countries and time periods where food was in abundance, and not when food was scarce.

Now when there’s food in abundance in some countries, people can afford to do things like dieting, something completely against our natural instinct. They do this to get “slim” or “fit” , even though it’s not healthy. An example is the “calorie diet”. People using this dieting method count the amount of calories they eat to avoid “getting fat”. One kind of product being sold to “aid” people taking this diet are called “100 calorie packs”. Basically, these are snack packs that only contain 100 calories to make counting calories easier. The companies actually aren’t lying when they say it’s 100 calories, the actual problem is the content of the bags.

In order for companies to make snacks that taste just as good as normal snacks, but only 100 calories, they revert to artificial chemicals and additives. Your body can process natural foods, without chemicals easily, but food with man made chemicals are hard for your body to process. Since your body cannot break down the chemicals, it sends it to your liver. Eating too many chemical filled artificial foods can put too much pressure on your liver, which isn’t good for your health. Over dieting can also lead to eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia.

Anorexia is when you purposely starve yourself. Some causes are depression and the fear of becoming fat, and this can cause your stomach to shrink be able to take less food. And if the Anorexia is severe, you may have to be hospitalised to receive nutrients through a tube that goes straight into your bloodstream so your main organs can continue to function.

Bulimia is the kind of the opposite. It is when you overeat or binge, and then vomit everything out. This is not good as it hurts your body to regurgitate things often. Both of these eating disorders can be a side effect of dieting and can have long term effects on your body.

Some people who are aware of this, turn to exercising. Exercising in general is a good thing, however many people get confused with again, the word “fat” and the word “heavy”. Although it’s true that many people with huge excess amounts of fat tend to be heavy as well, it does not mean that fat itself is heavy. Going back to the fact mentioned before, that muscle is 4 times heavier than fat, people are unaware of the fact that exercise will make you heavier.

If your goal is to get fit, stronger, or less fat, exercise could be a good thing. However if weight loss is your goal, then exercising is only going to build muscle which is again, a lot heavier than fat. Muscle also like fat, takes up space. So if your goal was to fit a smaller size, exercising may only do more damage than good as you build muscle. Many people unknowingly enter gyms and “slimming” class, with exercise instructors encouraging a gym membership or other like things so you can “get slim” or “lose fat”.

Overall, it’s pretty hard for people to be slim, fit, or a “good size” with so many tricks of the trade unbeknownst to the common people , so it may be better for people to just stick with being healthy!

Written by Jasmine