Have you ever seen a girl that is extremely skinny that you couldn’t imagine how someone could be that thin? In the United States about 8 million people have been affected with eating disorders. Most people affected by eating disorders are young women. Eating disorders are affecting many types of people around the world. We need to try to stop people, especially young women, from thinking its ok to have an eating disorder. They need to be happy with the way they are.

In our culture to be known as sexy or beautiful you have to be thin. Many researchers believe that is true. One researcher named Nada Scotland says, “We know seen super thin models can play a big role in causing anorexia. …But these people look scary, not normal”. This society girls and women don’t like their bodies, most want to look like the thin beautiful Victoria Secret Models. Some studies show some eating disorders are also caused from genetics. Even if so we should try to help each other to be healthy and eat healthy too. Eating disorders are mostly affected people with emotional, physical, social and family issues. About 8 million people in the United States are affected with eating disorders.

Girls are commonly affected with eating disorders. A psychologist named Sharon Lamb says, “Girls today, even very young ones are being bombated with the message that they need to become super-skinny to be sexy”. Females from 12-25 average about 90% of women with eating disorders. That was found in an article called “College women at Risk for Eating Disorders”. In the articles it also said 0.5-3.7 percent of girls develop anorexia nervosa and 11.1-4.2 percent develop bulimia nervosa. Only 18% of girls reject the image of being thin. That leaves 82% of women that want to look like the models and actress on TV. Males are being affected with eating disorders too, but it not very common among them. Binge eating is mostly common in the eating disorders for males.

There are a lot of eating disorders programs that help men and women with eating disorders. The only problem with those are, they only seems to help for the time they’re in there. In a study it was found, at a San Francisco Bay eating disorders program, 14% develop an eating disorder within 2 years of leaving the program. More programs should be started, but they should help the eating disorder patient in a long term. Eating disorders is an illness and should always be helped with the people that have those illnesses. Models and actors should help by showing people don’t have to be super-skinny to look beautiful. Some actors and models like Nicole Richie and Kate Boswoth are not the role models young girls should look up to. Magazines covers still put their pictures even though young girls are going to see them and think its ok to have an eating disorder because they do.

Eating disorders are taking over peoples lives, some people even lose their lives because of eating disorders. The studies mostly show fashion is a big contributor to eating disorders. One designer named Kelly Cutron says “They wear a size 2 or 4, if we get a girl who is bigger than a 4, she’s not going to fit the clothes, Clothes look better on thin people, the fabric hangs better”. What does this tell the viewers? Young girls that want to become famous are going to try to get thin so they can become models, or whatever they want to be. That statement is saying they only want a size 4 or smaller. Girls are going to go out their way to that size to be accepted.

With the high numbers of people with eating disorders, there should be clinics everywhere to help those people get treated with their illness. People should be aware of the illness, so if they know someone they can help them get help. Shows and magazines should help the image they’re sending to the public. Young girls should be educated about the effects with eating disorders, so they don’t make that mistake. They should be taught that each one of us is made differently and we need to stay the way we are and be healthy. There should be information about how to maintain your weigh, but the right weight for your height and age. More role models need to be mentioned so the young audiences see you don’t have to be thin to be called beautiful. Beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes and everyone should be happy with what they are.