Damaris Pierce

ENGL. 1213

19 February 2008

Dr. Talbot

The Girl in the Magazine:

      The Effect Celebrities and Models have on Teen and Adult Body Image.

Obsession, unrelenting pressure, and striving for perfection.  As a 17-year-old cross-country athlete, I experienced each of these symptoms daily.   As an athlete, I had yearlong subscriptions to SHAPE and Fitness magazines and read each one religiously.  Instead of paying attention to the text in the magazines, I looked at the pictures of all of the fitness models that had picture perfect bodies that I longed for each day.  The covers of these magazines were graced with models that were a size 00 and looked to me as though they were incredibly healthy individuals.  This was simply not true, as I had to learn the hard way.  I was one of thousands of teenagers who felt negatively about my body image because I constantly compared myself to the celebrities and models that grace the covers of these so called fitness magazines.  Teenagers and young adults in today’s society are affected by this constant pressure to be thin and look just like those they admire.

From the 1940’s until the 1980’s, female celebrities and models were curvy and pear-shaped and were admired for their body images.  With the millennium came a new perception of what bodies were supposed to look like to be considered beautiful.  Female celebrities and models are now seen as the poster girls for fitness and health.  What some are not aware of is that a significant percentage of these role models for fitness have eating disorders that they keep hidden from the public eye.  The question at hand is, why is this “thin is in” policy becoming the norm in today’s society?  In the world today, it is almost as though being a height of 5’7 and weighing 135 pounds is considered overweight.  As a 17 year old, I felt enormous pressure to do well in cross-country, and with that pressure came an obsession to have a body like the girl in the magazine.  Today, it is not unusual to see a girl who weighs only ninety pounds and believe that it is normal and we say, “She must be so skinny because she eats right and exercises”.  This statement is sometimes true, but the discouraging truth is that there are girls out there that look great on the outside, but on the inside that girl is starving for approval from anyone, and never lets a second go by without worrying if someone thinks they look fat today. 

 The longing to look like the girl in the magazine has reached millions of young teen girls and young adults in the world, and is still capturing new victims each day.  Some people ask if this concept really is effecting young teens in a negative way.  The sad truth is in the treatment centers across the U.S. that treats girls for this problem.  Parents and teachers can ignore this problem and believe that it will never happen to their daughter, or they can take action while they still have a chance.  Parents need to be encouraging their children and making them feel confident in their body image rather than constantly demanding more perfection from their child.  As a 17 year old, my eating disorder was not a result of my parents demanding perfection, but it was a result of me longing for perfection from myself, and striving for approval from my coaches and parents.  According to the National Eating Disorders Association, 60% of Caucasian middle school age girls read one fashion magazine regularly and the media is their main source for information about women’s health (NEDA).  When these girls read these fashion magazines, it is so easy to look at the seemingly healthy models and strive to look just like them.  These magazines are what young girls are using to compare themselves to stick thin models, which ultimately results in an eating disorder that can take years to recover from.

As discussed previously, the perception of a beautiful body has changed drastically in the last fifty years.  Just as curvy and pear shaped was the norm in the past, underfed and emaciated is becoming normal today.  As we are constantly subjected to fitness and fashion magazines, talk shows, and celebrities who are supposedly role models for young girls, eating disorders are becoming more prominent in America whether we want to face this problem or not.  “The Media has a tremendous impact on girls to be thin” (ScienceWorld).  This statement proves what many doctors and parents refuse to admit.  Struggling with an eating disorder is often stemmed from wanting control over everything in your life.  As a 17 year old with an eating disorder and a longing for control, I did not want to admit to myself that my eating disorder in part was a result of being influenced by the “girl in the magazine”.  That told me that my eating disorder was giving me what I wanted the opposite of.  I wanted control, but in reality I had the least control over my life than I ever had.  These are the feelings that girls everyday struggle with.

In conclusion, my goal for this paper is not to solely to educate my readers on eating disorders and the feelings associated with it, but to convince my readers that “the girl in the magazine” is not just a pretty face that can conquer the world with her ninety pound body, but is someone who is struggling and influencing teen girls and young adults through-out the world to struggle in the same way.