One time, I was interviewing a few girls between the ages of 9-15 in my neighborhood. Out of the 20 girls I interviewed, 16 of them thought they were overweight, ugly or they were unhappy with their body image. That's 80%! I've had body image issues in the past and I wanted to research a little and find out why this was. I believe media exposure especially teen and celebrity magazines affect the way young girls see themselves.
In 6th grade, when I was only 11 years old, I had a fear that no one else knew about. I discovered the internet and celebrity news websites. After seeing how much attention they received and how much they were praised for having a "perfect" or "gorgeous" body I started looking at myself differently. I frequently was made fun of for how I looked. I developed an eating disorder at only 11 years of age. I struggled with eating disorders until my freshman year of high school. A therapist of mine suggested the low self esteem and the body image issues I had developed from influences of the websites I read and the magazines I looked at. After getting over my own personal struggles I wanted to see how many others had the same issues I have. Was it for the same reasons?
The girls I talked to came from many different backgrounds and social groups. I asked questions about the magazines they read, which celebrities they found attractive and their overall view on themselves physically. I found that a lot of them followed major celebrities that were in the news all the time. They were on the covers of magazines and photoshopped to “look hot.”
One of the things that really bothered me was the way the models looked on the magazines. The before and after shots were astonishing. The editors use photoshop to make the models look thinner, enhance cheekbones, eyes and jaw-lines, and to make the model look more attractive. Seeing how “normal” they look before the editing process made me sick to my stomach. These 11 year old girls are looking at these models thinking they look like this naturally. I’m sure most of them know they're edited but not to the extent they actually are.
I got back together with the girls I interviewed and showed them a video that goes through the process of editing. It was a wake up call for all of them. I told them all that It is ok to enjoy food. It is ok to be happy with being a few pounds overweight. Everyones body types are different and depending on your height and the way your body is built 135 lbs can look completely different on 50 different people.
My overall goal was to educate these girls and teach them that there aren't people who look like that naturally. There aren’t only girls who suffer from these eating disorders. There are boys that are affected to. Over 8 MILLION Americans have an eating disorder. I believe we can teach everyone the dangers of eating disorders and that it is ok to eat.
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