What happens when a seven-year-old girl is starving herself because she feels she is “too fat” or “too ugly?” (Wallace, 2015). This is becoming a reality in America. Young girls are going on diets because they cannot cope with the stress society puts on beauty. Society must do something to change the way these young girls see themselves and each other. Dieting isn’t only a teenage driven phenomenon; girls are going on diets at younger and younger ages for example at seven or eight years old. Society must understand what body image is, find the influences on body image, perceiving oneself as overweight versus actually being overweight, hear stories of Barbie and her influence, look into a study on body image in adolescents, observe the statistics of girls, and argue that poor body image is not a teenager only issue.
Having body image issues is an individual issue that includes a lot of different factors. Body image is a picture …show more content…
90% of those are women between the ages twelve to twenty-five. 50% of young girls are dissatisfied with their bodies and this problem starts even before puberty but it hit the biggest at puberty. 25-55% of twelve-year-olds have reported dieting, 14% have reported binge eating, and 48% have reported to fasting and using food substitutes to lessen their weight (Nierengarten, 2015). Distorted body image made the biggest impact at the age of eleven. 40-70% of girls are dissatisfied with their body (in particular two or more parts), the most common parts include hips, stomach, and thighs. 42-45% of ninth to twelfth graders have reported they have tried to lose weight (Choate, 2007). Almost 70% of tenth graders (aged fifteen and sixteen year olds) said they have tried to lose weight. 71% of fifteen-year-olds said they have also tried to lose weight (Mellin, 1992). Dieting is mostly seen as a teenager driven issue but it doesn’t exclude the
Having body image issues is an individual issue that includes a lot of different factors. Body image is a picture …show more content…
90% of those are women between the ages twelve to twenty-five. 50% of young girls are dissatisfied with their bodies and this problem starts even before puberty but it hit the biggest at puberty. 25-55% of twelve-year-olds have reported dieting, 14% have reported binge eating, and 48% have reported to fasting and using food substitutes to lessen their weight (Nierengarten, 2015). Distorted body image made the biggest impact at the age of eleven. 40-70% of girls are dissatisfied with their body (in particular two or more parts), the most common parts include hips, stomach, and thighs. 42-45% of ninth to twelfth graders have reported they have tried to lose weight (Choate, 2007). Almost 70% of tenth graders (aged fifteen and sixteen year olds) said they have tried to lose weight. 71% of fifteen-year-olds said they have also tried to lose weight (Mellin, 1992). Dieting is mostly seen as a teenager driven issue but it doesn’t exclude the