As a 12 year old girl, I felt that this topic was very important, not only for girls in India, but all over the world. This is why I decided to share it as my first post on “Youth Ki Awaaz”, a platform for like-minded youths to express themselves. I hope that this short essay is enlightening and provides you with information you didn’t know before.
Insecurities. They are prevalent everywhere, with insecurities regarding body image being the most rampant. With the rise of social media, young girls (specifically ages 10-17) are facing more and more pressure to have the “ideal” body shape.
But what is the “ideal” body shape?
Well, according to http://www.about-face.org/, the average size of the idealized woman (as portrayed by models), has stabilized at 13-19% below healthy weight. Since this ideal body image is unattainable to most women, they resort to products to help them. The weight loss industry rakes in at least a whopping $55.4 BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR!
Adolescent’s ideas of an unhealthy ideal body are heavily influenced by social media. What more can you expect when they see seemingly effortless perfect pictures of celebrity’s every time they check their phone? The thing is, most of these faces and bodies are not natural. http://www.about-face.org/ tells us, The Aesthetic Society, which has been collecting multi-specialty procedural statistics since 1997, says the overall number of cosmetic procedures has increased 457 percent since the collection of the statistics first began. Along with that, majority of these images are made using excessive makeup and the magic of Photoshop. Still jealous of that seemingly perfect model you saw in “Vogue” yesterday?
We are all human. In the present, so many women suffer with depression just because of the way they look. We are all beautiful. Today, embrace yourself. You are special. You are unique. You are beautiful.
You are you.