Preview

Self esteem

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
598 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Self esteem
Advertisements Cause Low Self-Esteem in Teenage Girls

There is an old saying that goes “Beauty is only skin deep” which means that It is not how beautiful one is or how gorgeous one looks, but it’s what’s inside the heart that matters. It can be confusing because if such things don’t matter, then why do teenage girls go to great lengths to feel pretty? Why are there so many of them that suffer from low self-esteem? One cause of this is media advertisements. “Over 70% of teenage girls believe they do not measure up” (Fisher). Different forms of advertising, such as magazines and television, play a large role in the low self-esteem in young teenage girls. Self-esteem is a feeling of having respect for oneself or ones abilities. A person’s self-esteem can determine whether the individual decides to have a positive outlook on life or a negative one. Young teenage girls are the likeliest candidates to fall prey to low self-esteem because they are the most targeted age group for most advertisements. “50% of teenage girls are using restrictive measures to lose weight at any given time” (Neumark-Sztainer). Many fashion and beauty magazines, such as Seventeen™ Magazine and Teen Vogue, all use airbrushed and digitally altered techniques on the images of their models in their magazine covers. They may make the waist smaller or make the model appear to be slimmer. These images promote an unattainable standard of beauty, which cause young girls to feel poorly about their bodies, which can lead to an eating disorder.
Many television ads contribute to the over sexualizing of teen girls. Young girls worship celebrities and often imitate what they see. A very famous celebrity that young girls look up to is Miley Cyrus. She was formerly known as Hannah Montana, the kind and sweet girl next door, now turned into a wild, out of control, drug addict. She has been seen participating in many lewd activities in public, wearing close to no clothes, and lately on the VMA’s, she



Bibliography: Neumark Sztainer, Dianne. “I’m, Like, SO Fat!”. Book. New York: The Guilford Press. 2005. 5. Print Hendricks, Alexandra Burgoon, Michael. “The Relationship Between Fashion Consumption and  Body”. Ed. Pamela Gibson. San Diego. 2003. 5. Print. Fisher, Ali. Dove® Self-Esteem Program. 2013. Organization Gurian, Anita. “How To Raise Girls With Healthy Self-Esteem”. Article. NY. June, 2012. Web.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Tough Guise Gender

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The media has allowed others to expect that all women must have a perfect body. Young girls are seeing these messages and trying to mold themselves into these bodies. After this assignment, I was able to reflect how the media’s portrayal affects women’s self-esteem. We strive for unreachable expectations that aren’t real. They cause harm to a young girl’s self-image. I was also able to realize that ads and popular songs objectify women in a disgusting manner. It is upsetting to realize how many young girls listen and see these types of ads and songs. It is horrible that so many people are actually taking these fake images into consideration and striving for that type of body. By watching these films and applying them to real life examples, it has allowed me to understand that these issues are greater than we…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Advertising in teen magazines and on television typically glamorizes skinny models who do not resemble the average woman. In fact, today's models generally weight 23% less then the average woman. Considering the average person in the United States sees approximately 3,000 ads in magazines, billboards, and television every day, your teenager is getting the wrong message about body image much too often.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Every girl has seen a woman in the media stick thin, sun kissed, envy of the way she looks “perfect”. Women that are put on television, a magazine or advertisements is ultimately fake with Photoshop, makeup and plastic surgery. This is a dangerous perception of beauty which has resulted in a decline in self-acceptance. Many girls any age struggle with their image believing that they are not thin enough, their hair is not long enough, or even they believe that they are ugly. I believe that the social stereotype of beauty should go back to the 50’s.…

    • 423 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Editing in the Media

    • 3411 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The edited images of ideal bodies perpetrated by the media are a contributing factor to poor body image, low self-esteem, and eating disorders among females. According to numerous doctors and therapists, self-worth is established in relation to what is portrayed in the media, and when magazines and advertisements are Photoshopped, the expectations for average women are altered. In an attempt to reach this new standard for females, some girls develop eating disorders and obsess about losing weight and become thinner and more beautiful.…

    • 3411 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There have been discussions by researchers regarding how the media portrays us to what is beauty and thereby causing a person to be dissatisfied with their appearance, their weight and eating habits. (Levine&Murnen, 2009). The researchers have revealed as to what is considered beauty for women and teenage girls, and what standard they are using that complements what the media has used to define the beauty. In turn, they will use those standards as a means for evaluating their own level and rating of beauty. These women and teenage girls will then seek to achieve those standards so that family, peers and even strangers will be pleased with their appearance. (O’Brien et al., 2009; Thompson, Heinberg, et al.,…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    However, a great percentage of the girls did indicate that if they could, they would change something about themselves. Furthermore, about 50% of the girls had worries and thought they were fat. Lastly, the Media deception showed that teens are not educated on the manipulation of the medias image refinement. These finding can make way for further research because it opens a new door to be able to reverse the damage that the media has already done by showing girls that they are perfect just the way they are. These findings can help young girls understand that even are greatest icons go through so much to look…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    this website shows teenagers whilst going through puberty can often start comparing themselves to other celebrities and people in the public eye. Most of the pictures of women in the magazines are airbrushed and edited to improve the pictures giving an unrealistic picture of what women look like, which can affect peoples self esteem causing them to feel bad about their bodies and image.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social Self-Esteem 02.1

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Body Image: Poor opinions of one’s physical appearance can have a large negative effect on self-esteem. (This is particularly true for teenage girls.) Adolescent girls are exposed to a lot of messages, through their peer groups and through the media, on the importance of looking the right way and having the right body shape. Therefore, many healthy and attractive young girls view themselves as overweight or otherwise unsightly. Parents should encourage their children to accept their bodies and appreciate the inherent differences found among human…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The media contributes to what teenagers believe is “thin and beautiful.” This is why controlling what is in the media is vital to teenagers. Frances O’Connor, the author of Obesity and the Media, explains advertisers bombard viewers with approximately five hundred advertisements everyday, and at least ten percent of these advertisements are directly about beauty. This information shows that there are an overwhelming number of messages from the media about beauty. In addition, O’Connor later goes on to write that, advertisers expose viewers to the idea that being skinny and losing weight will make them happier. However, in the article, “Eating Disorders and the Media,” The Camp Recovery Center Health Group proves that long-term “regimented diet plans do not work”, the more people purchase diet products, the more the diet industry will keep pushing their false advertisements and slogans. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, “Nearly 70 percent of girls in grades five through 12 said magazine images influence their ideals of a perfect body.” This shows that the media, which can lead to many eating disorders, influences more…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    African American Women

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Young woman face numerous obstacles and confusion about their body image in everyday life. A lot of teenage female’s views of their body relates to what is displayed in music videos. Music videos are made partly to promote fashion, the music itself, and uphold trends. However, they tend to focus mainly the physical appearances of young people. These trends promote the ideal to be as thin and flawless as possible. This ultimately reinforces eating disorders in young females.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Girls who were already dissatisfied with their bodies showed more dieting, anxiety, and bulimic symptoms after prolonged exposure to fashion and advertising images in a teen girl magazine. (1)…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Miss

    • 297 Words
    • 1 Page

    Teenagers are going through a lot. They have to deal with their parents, puberty, and their personal persetion of themselves. Most teenafe girls have a problem with insecurity issues. The image of “beauty”seems closr to impossible…

    • 297 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Current Student

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages

    One message young girls see and hear is that they should be skinny. Many of these girls will try to mimic the skinny models that they often see on TV and in magazines. It is unfortunate that these young girls are growing up in a society that puts such an influence on the way we look. Robin Givhan writes, “The Spring 2013 runway shows, which finished in Paris this month, were filled with impossibly skinny, extremely young gazelles. So were the fall glossies. Fashion as usual, perhaps-yet this was supposed to have changed” (Givhan 1). It is no wonder that young girls strive to be as thin as possible when all they see is skinny models around their age plastered all over the TV and magazines. I believe that this is one of the worst messages young girls can receive. Susan Bordo touches on this subject in her essay “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies”, in which she covers how young girls think and feel about their bodies. Bordo writes, “They are aware that virtually every advertisement, every magazine cover, has been digitally modified and that very little of what they see is ‘real’. That doesn’t stop them from hating their own bodies for…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Negative Body Image

    • 1867 Words
    • 8 Pages

    A study showed that women experience an average of 13 negative thoughts about their body each day, while 97% of women admit to having at least one “I hate my body” moment each day (raderprograms). Teens today are faced with many pressures: how they dress, who their friends are, who they are going to date, and most importantly, what they look like. In today’s society, body image is more than just the mental picture a person has of what their body looks like. For many, body image is also a reflection of how they feel about themselves and their lives. People with a negative body image believe that if they do not look right, other things, such as their personality, intelligence, social skills, or capabilities, also are not right. They think that if they fix their bodies, all their other problems will disappear. This can result in unhealthy weight management practices and an unhealthy relationship with food. People excessively diet and exercise out of fear of gaining weight. The media today portrays stick thin women with beautiful faces and size 0 bodies, but the truth is, the majority of runway models meet the Body Mass Index (BMI) criteria to be considered anorexic (raderprograms). When influenced by role models like these, teenagers start to feel inferior if they do not look the same. In turn, when put under the pressure of women in the media, teenagers will most likely develop a negative body image, eating or mood disorder, or other unhealthy addictions if they feel their bodies do not “measure up” to those of women portrayed.…

    • 1867 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ideal Body Image

    • 1698 Words
    • 7 Pages

    What is perfection? Is it having the perfect hair? The perfect, flawless face? The perfect skinny body or perhaps to be a duplicate of Barbie? For a majority of adolescents, this is the case. We live in a world where the epitome of perfection is exposed on a daily basis. The new model on vogue magazine, Victoria's Secret or the new face on the cover of girlfriend magazine have practically made it inevitable. Different types of media play significant roles in influencing young women in particular causing a beauty standard amongst them in which many would consider harmful. The internet, billboards, movies, music videos, television commercials, magazines and other types of mediums are what we occupy our daily lives with but it is also all forms of how the media is able to reach out and bombard us with their benchmark of beauty. We see perfection being depicted so often that the perception of beauty which the media fosters has been accepted and accustomed as a part of our daily lives. The ideal body image set forward by the media is so built into society's head that it is becoming an expectation. The negative influences of the media pressurize teenagers into gaining that ideal, unattainable body that it becomes a preposterous obsession which affects their safety.…

    • 1698 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays