When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

In America, body image is established by ones self-perception, but more of the perceptions of others. The media plays a huge role on how a teen feels about their outer appearance. For most girls, being healthy means having the perfect body and being accepted by their peers. The American Academy of Pediatrics showed that the majority of girls (59 percent) reported resentment with their body shape, and 66 percent expressed the desire to lose weight. Standards and examples of how we should look are being tremendously imposed on our generation. People are being looked down on, and teased simply because they do not look like the way the media perceives as beautiful. We need to put a stop to this because more and more teens are taking extreme measures to get their desired look. For example, eating less, eating more, causing oneself to vomit, plastic surgery, cutting oneself, bleaching skin, and much more precautions are taking place. Body Image and the Media is a topic that should be discussed, improved, and resolved for the better.

Magazines are made to sell something or to inform the reader about a certain topic. When a business is trying to sell a car or a certain food, 95% of the time they try to find a slender man or women to help sell their business. A shocking statistic from http://www.colorado.edu showed that after seeing photos of female fashion models, seven out of ten women felt more angry and depressed than prior to viewing those pictures.

Television is another thing that down plays people’s appearances. On Television shows the in crowd or the "it" girl is 98% of the time a slender and fashionable teen. The “nerd or weird" kid is usually a unique individual, but they have one or two flaws so they are picked on. Because of small things like this the unique and different people start to feel bad about themselves. One out of five men and two out of five women would trade three to five years of their life to achieve their weight goals. Life is a wonderful thing and if a human being would trade that away just to lose a couple pounds then something must me wrong.
What we can do as a community is to support one another and to look at someone’s inner beauty rather than their outer beauty. We should have workshops in schools and different clubs that regularly discuss their opinions about body image and the media. Parents should be talking to their kids about how they feel and how much they love their child just the way they are. Schools should also not be providing candy in vending machines. Only healthy choices should be permitted. If we work together, and make an effective system that will reach out to our generation then we will be able to build a better community, then world.
And remember, do not always believe what the media tells you!

Back to the question! When you look in the mirror what do (YOU) see?