I think we are all a little more obsessed with our physical appearance than we would like to admit. There is a constant, growing social pressure to be attractive for teenagers that has a negative impact on self esteem and can lead to a number of negative things. Although we live in a much more accepting society than previous ones there is still a unattainable pressure to be a standard of 'beautiful'.
I believe this begins in childhood, not with just beauty pageants and gifted talented programs (which have the potential to do wonderful things but definitely do harm), but because of how beauty is portrayed to children in fairytales. We see the beautiful princess who is pleasant and intelligent and the wicked ugly stepmother. We immediately begin to believe that whats beautiful is good. We associate being attractive with positive traits while being unappealing is associated with the negative. Little did we ever realize that fairytales were never based on true stories.
also kids are mean; they typically have no filters and what they have to say isn't always very nice. Although most people really start to struggle with their body image during puberty, because of the many changes the body undergoes. It's tempting to compare ourselves with others because we develop at different rates and ways. As we become more aware of media we begin to compare ourselves to impossible figures. We live in a society where we watch tv and teenagers are not played by teenagers. Children are played by children, adults are played by adults. But teenagers? No. Teenagers are awkward, so they're played by adults. Because of media we are accustomed to unattainable standards of beauty, the current media ideal of thinness for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population.
Self esteem isn't something I, or most teenagers have much of... But can you blame us?
I think this one is the most relatable one i have read these past two nights since i have been trying to do my twenty two comments before Wednesday. Shailey, you first sentence in this blog got me hooked from the start. because you are so and completely right about this. Every one is a little more obsessed with their physical appearance. I think people do think that physical appearance is more what people like to think is "beautiful." Mostly because you hear about it all the time how people do things to make themselves look and feel "perfect." -whitney
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