Weight And Advertisements Analysis

Each hour, every day, kids are told by the media that they should care about their appearance. What they wear, how they act, and most importantly, their weight, according to all those ads, is of the utmost significance. And although schools and parents try to counter the media, attempting to teach kids how to look past their image, some can’t. Growing up, I had heard from school that I shouldn’t care too much about how I looked, but I did. I was so self-conscious all the time; whenever I ate too much, I freaked out about it. You could call me crazy, and I’d have to agree - for a kid, it kinda is. It wasn’t my fault - it was first my parents’, and then my coaches’. They kept telling me to lose weight, and I was concerned with making others happy. It took me too long to realize that losing my weight was about me, and only me. My weight has been a struggle for as long as I can remember. When I was 6 years old, my mom took my brother and I on a trip to China. It was a lot of fun, and the food was so good. Almost too good, in fact. In that one month, I gained 30 pounds. At the time, I didn’t even know what “fat” or “weight” or “dieting” was, so I definitely wasn’t bothered. Surprisingly, neither were my parents. They clearly noticed the flub (it was kinda hard not to), but didn’t say anything about it. It …show more content…
I turned 10 and somehow placed first at New England Championships U10 with my tubby belly. Another year passed, and I placed second. Even with the “extra” weight, I wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination - in fact, I was the opposite - I was great. And, I knew that. I didn’t feel the need to improve, or do anything to change where I was, because I really didn’t. It was a great place to be. I was happy with my swimming and I didn’t care about anything else. It wasn’t that I was longer fat - I had just decided that my weight was second to my happiness, and even though my parents were still urging me to drop pounds, I could still be