Teen Body Image and the Media

By Leeza Calabrese, Student Editor

Many parents and teenagers are unaware of the affects the media has towards body image. Since the beginning of advertisement, the media has had a strong influence in teens and young adults (those depicted or classified in their early twenties) around the world. There are hundreds of billboards and television commercials that teens and young adults are exposed to everyday that provide countless idealistic views of teenage body image and the correlation of what beauty should be. Unfortunately, these types of negative advertisement have had a dangerous effect on teen understanding and acceptance of body image. More specifically, these types of negative advertisement are presumed to be responsible for creating myths on how a teen or young adult should look, thereby affecting their self-esteem, and responsible for causing eating disorders. These types of media based promotion of body perfection for teens and young adults have resultantly become part of our daily lives.

However, not all of the media in the 21st century promotes negative body image. For example, the Dove company has announced more than eight years ago of their "Campaign for Real Beauty." The brand proudly features women who happily show off their curves, wrinkles, and the "imperfections" they have come to love. Dove has continued to promote awareness about the unrealistic vision of how the media says a person should look and strives to teach young women to feel comfortable in their own skin.

Editor's Note: Leeza Calabrese created a You Tube video and the aforementioned post as a senior project. It is reposted with permission.