Society's Unrealistic Standards Of Teenagers

All over the world, teenagers are either sitting in front of their TV’s, looking at their phone, or even driving past a giant billboard in a city. And all of these things have something in common, they are showing society’s idea of a beautiful human being. The girl looking at her phone then starts to think about how skinny the model in the advertisement. Then she gets up from the couch and looks in a mirror and stares at her reflection. She has the average weight for girls her age, but she doesn’t think so. She is thinking to the future, what starts as a simple weight loss experiment can turn into a serious eating disorder, but she doesn’t know that. Teenagers and even adults have always wanted obtain a certain body type. But more recently …show more content…
Many teenagers are obsessed with having to change their appearance because of society’s unrealistic standards. Girls these days will do anything to reach the status quo of being remarkably skinny, and boys have to be athletic and have amazing good looks to be considered ‘cool’. Girls need to wear a ton of makeup be tan and wear the nicest clothes to be considered pretty. But in reality girls can wear sweatpants and still look cute. Women and men are altering their looks to be more attractive. Every era had a standard of beauty. “In the ancient Egypt, women would use natural substances to lighten their skin, darken their lips and line their eyes” (BSC Education). “In the 16th Century women would crush alabaster and lead paint which is highly toxic to appear pale and delicate” (BSC Education). “In the Victorian era, women even wore tight corsets that would cut off blood flow and cause them to faint in order to have an hour glass figure. And in the 18th Century women pasted mouse skin on their foreheads make their eyebrows look darker. Most of these procedures were unhealthy, some even deadly, however, women were always willing to change their appearance to look attractive” (BSC Education). Melissa Dahl from TODAY reported “that there's a difference between self-care and investing too much of your self -worth in your appearance, and it's a tricky balance to stay on the right side of that line. Obsessing …show more content…
Everyone has insecurities, and these messages that the media puts out makes many people feel worse about it. “A growing number of girls and young women say they are unhappy with the way they look and more 16- to 18-year-olds feel less positive about life generally” (GirlsGuiding). “The overall proportion of those surveyed who were not happy with their looks rose to 33% this year, from 29% last year and 26% two years ago. The 63% happy with how they look has fallen from 73% two years ago to 63% now At ages 14 to 16, 51% of girls are unhappy with their appearance, and even after that age, 52% are still unhappy” (Meikle). This is showing that people a few years ago were already not completely happy with their appearance, but the percentage has rosen and these girls are killing their self-esteem. According to Melissa Dahl “The survey found that 60 percent of adult women have negative thoughts about themselves weekly. That's compared to 36 percent of men. Even more alarming: 78 percent of teen girls are plagued with this kind of self-criticism” (TODAY). And another report stated, “That some girls, influenced by the media and advertising, are spending substantial sums on beauty products. Among 11- to 16-year-olds, nearly eight in 10 say they shave or wax their legs, more than six in 10 wear makeup to school and four in 10 shave or wax their bikini line and/or wear a padded bra”