Media's Influence on Body Image

1588 Words7 Pages
Love your selfie The first time I was embarrassed about my body was in the eighth grade when I was stuffing my bra because someone told me that my boobs weren’t big enough. Another time was during dance class when I had realized that I was chubbier than the rest of the girls there. Then somewhere around the summer before high school I was taught to despise myself thanks to the media and But from that I made sure that I kept myself beautiful so someone else would be able to love me, so I would be able to please someone else, so I could belong to someone else. The media teaches girls that they will never be good enough unless they have a flat stomach, long hair, tanned, clear skin, perfect teeth, perfectly manicured nails, and beautiful eyes made up perfectly. Now, I then realized that I had few of those things. I do not have a flat stomach, rather, I have a bit of a chubby one, I do not have clear, or tanned skin, I have a few breakouts, but who doesn’t? I’ve never had straight teeth and I have never gotten my nails professionally done, therefore they aren’t perfect. But, from the beginning of this semester, when I was done listening to ads about how to reduce fat and cut down your waistline, or about acne treatment or how to reduce the look of aging, I learned to love myself for the way I am. Before, I was a mess. I thought that I was an ugly, horrid monster that no one would ever be able to love. I compared myself to almost every other girl I saw. And I know that a lot of girls do that too. Some statistics show that on a weekly basis girls spend 31 hours watching TV, 15 hours (average) online, and 3.5 hours looking in the mirror. The average girl sees over 200 unrealistic ads per day and the number one issue with teen girls today is poor body image and self esteem. You may not have known this but 81% of girls are unhappy with their looks. You also might not
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