"To all the girls that think you're fat because you're not a size zero, you're the beautiful one. It's society who's ugly," -Marilyn Monroe has always been a great role model and inspiration to women starting in the 50s and 60s. She was one of the first celebrity females who was “thick” but was also considered beautiful. For many years society has portrayed what is considered the 'ideal body' to be skinny, tan, flat-stomached, and to have the thigh gap, long legs, big butt and big boobs. Women who have all of this are the ones all over our media. These are the women that little girls today are looking up to. If they don’t look this way then they consider themselves overweight and ugly. I would like to see a dramatic change in my lifetime in body confidence in young women. It’s so hard watching many girls all over the world and around me suffer with low self-esteem.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, over 80% of Americans watch television daily; On average these people watch over three hours per day. American youth these days are engaging themselves in large amounts of media through their cell phones and laptops for at least 7.5 hours a day. All over our television networks, magazine covers, advertisements, and social media are female models upon models showing off their “great bods” or “summer bodies”. Even media aimed at elementary school age children such as animated cartoons and videos, emphasize on the importance of being attractive. For example, the recent phenomenon Frozen, both princesses in the movie are beautiful, big eyed, skinny girls, who look the exact same. When has there ever been a thick princess with big thighs and a chunky stomach? A majority of models are well below what is considered a healthy body weight. Mass media's use of such unrealistic models sends an unspoken message that in order for a woman to be considered beautiful, she must be or look unhealthy.
According to Eating Disorder Hope, eating disorders are a daily struggle for 10 million females and 1 million males in the United States. Four out of ten individuals have either personally experienced an eating disorder or know someone who has. 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted “often” or “always.” Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents. Most females have the mindset that they’re “not skinny enough” or “not pretty enough” which makes it extremely challenging for girls to be content with their bodies. Body dissatisfaction in women is a well-documented phenomenon in mental health literature. There are even social media websites and blogs on Tumblr that promote anorexia and other eating disorders, thigh gaps, and flat stomachs. Some examples of blog titles are: “Small Thighs and Knee Highs” and “Striving for Perfection”. From Instagram to Tumblr to Facebook to Twitter, girls are comparing their own bodies to others who post photos online. They compare everything from their eyebrow shape, lip size, forehead size, butt size, and clothing quality. Apps like Instagram have even created filters to hide your imperfections and to enhance your embarrassing selfies. Concern over weight and appearance related issues often appears in early female development and continues throughout the lifespan. Kasey Serdar, student at Westminster, stated that nearly half of females ages 6-8 have stated that they want to be slimmer. Body image gets worse as females go through puberty. Teenage girls are frequently dissatisfied with weight, fearing further weight gain, and being preoccupied with weight loss. 20% of 9-year-olds and over 40% of 14-year-olds reported wanting to lose weight. So how can we change this? How can we raise females confidence about their body image?

Appearance based insecurities are preventing students from putting their hand up in class, putting off job applicants from attending interviews, affecting romantic relationships and encouraging people to become antisocial, or to inhabit an online world where appearance based bullying is common. Young girls with self-doubt need to be given the tools to overcome it. No person can be told that they should have confidence, self-confidence must be instilled in teenagers minds -whether in the classroom, sports field, social media- so they can carry it with them for the rest of their lives. Starting with children can help change body confidence for generations to come. There are more and more people becoming aware of this issue and are trying to stop it. There was a study held by Dove which promoted self confidence for women. It’s called the Dove Patch (The Beauty Patch). The patch is meant to enhance the way women perceive their own beauty. It was given to a select group of women and they were asked to wear the patch for 12 hours for two weeks and record a video diary each day explaining how they feel. After the 5th day of wearing the patch the women started feeling more confident and did things out of their comfort zone. It was a “life-altering experience” one of the women stated. After the two weeks were up they were all told there is nothing in the beauty patch to help their confidence because it was all in their heads. They were astonished because in just those two weeks they built up their confidence so much. With the help of a patch, that actually didn’t do anything, created a better mindset for all of these women.

Female self-confidence is a huge issue in our society and people must come together now to start to change it. It’s so important that young girls are taught to love their bodies, that they’re beautiful no matter how tall or how thin. Many of my friends and peers have dealt with body dissatisfaction. I know too many people who have dealt with eating disorders and anorexia. I myself have even dealt with confidence issues, I myself am still trying to get over my self-doubt. I have realized that this is an issue in society and I want to help change it, I want to help younger girls love their bodies. Self-confidence regarding body image is very challenging and needs to be recognized.

Citations

Roxby, Philippa. "Does Social Media Impact on Body Image?" BBC. 13 Oct. 2014. Web. .

"Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders." Nationaleatingdisorders.org. Web. .

"Eating Disorders Statistics." Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD). Web. .

Nokes, Caroline. "Body Confidence: 'We Urgently Need to Help Britain's Teens with Their Body Image Issues'" The Telegraph. 13 Oct. 2014. Web. .

"Eating Disorder Statistics & Research." Eating Disorder Hope. Jacquelyn Ekern, 20 Apr. 2012. Web. .

SERDAR, KASEY. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." Westminister. Web. .

Dove: Patches. 2014. Film.