Girls and Body Image Tips
The Facts: 1 out of 2 ads targeting girls are about their looks
- A third of girls 14 to 17 say they are too fat
- Teen girls who read magazine articles about dieting were more likely five years later to practice extreme weight-loss measures, like vomiting, according to a 2007 study done by the University of Minnesota
- At 17, the average girl has seen more than 250,000 commercials aimed at her looks
- 60% of female video game characters are presented in a sexualized fashion
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Advice and Answers
Self-worth shouldn‘t be determined by what they see on TV or in a magazine.
Read any fashion magazine or watch any music video and you’ll know that media is not kind to girls. The expectations for appearance are wildly unrealistic, and many girls quickly decide they’re not thin, pretty, or sexy enough. Advertisers pounce on this vulnerabilty, promising perfect hair or skin, when there’s just no such thing.What is it?
There’s no denying that our media – and our culture – are obsessed with women’s weight. Magazines have weekly features with names like “body watch” that criticize female celebrities, for both being too heavy or too thin. Television and movie stars showcase unrealistic body types that most girls can’t copy without hurting themselves. Online how-to sites that teach girls about being anorexic or bulimic can be easily found. Girls look to the media for role models and when they compare themselves, they necessarily come up short. This lowers self-confidence and self-esteem at a time, developmentally, when kids are vulnerable anyway. Talking to girls about their weight is one of the hardest things parents can do – but the constant bombardment of messages about desirable weight and appearance makes this discussion crucial.Why it matters
We don’t want our daughters to develop eating disorders or spend their whole lives hating what they look like. Mothers of sons should also pay attention to media messages about appearance: Eating disorders do happen to boys as well, though not as often. Boys also need to be raised to understand the almost-unattainable ideals of beauty that our media broadcasts to them at every turn so that they don’t judge girls unrealistically.Parent tips for all kids
- Watch what you say. Make sure you don’t spend a lot of time talking about dieting or criticizing your own body. You are still your daughter’s biggest role model. If you take care of yourself, you will help your kids appreciate all that our bodies can do.
- If your kids are struggling with body image, you might share your own insecurities and how you dealt with them. You want your kids to know you under¬stand. After all, this is just the beginning of a life-long dialogue.
Parent tips for elementary school kids
- Keep girls active. Get them involved in sports and healthy lifestyles.
- Don’t stress weight, stress health.
- Placing less emphasis on how girls look helps them value themselves in broader ways later in life.
Parent tips for middle school kids
- Offer other role models. Get your two cents in about who your girls idolize or find pretty in the media and why. Without being heavy handed, talk about different people you find beautiful who are all different body types and say why. Keep fashion magazines to a minimum since they are all obsessive about looks.
- Help your kid become a media critic. Pay attention to ads, magazine covers, billboards – and talk to your kids about how these messages make you feel and ask them about their own reactions.
- Expose the myths. Make sure that kids know that celebrities have stylists, hairdressers, personal trainers, and more – all working to make them look polished. Point out that pictures in magazines have been altered to make models look flawless – and impossibly thin. Even better, show them just how much work goes into a cover shot by watching the short “Evolution” film produced by the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and available online.
Parent tips for high school kids
- Talk about the health consequences of eating disorders. Your kids will likely know someone with anorexia or bulimia. Ask them about their reactions. Point out these are illnesses, not defects, and that their friends need help. If your child has one of these disorders, it could be a life-threatening illness and you should consult a medical professional immediately.
- Don’t bug kids about their weight – stress health and fitness instead. This is a time for packing on the pounds since many stop having such active lives. Get your child up and moving at the gym, doing a sport, yoga, anything! Use media examples of stars who are toned to show how much work goes into looking the way they do.
I just hate, how all people are about nowadays is appearence, how someone's hair, eyes , or body is doesn't really mean, anything, if that person isn't meaningful, I'm a kid but, I have never picked on someone because of the way they look
people have said rude things about my hair and I look down on people who do things like that, and I have never wanted to look like some model, that no one really cares about in the "real world". The best lesson to teach your children is to not judge a book by its cover, and to not judge their own cover because of how people who don't have any "inner beauty", judge it.
Everything is about influence. Some say these magazines, shows, video games, etc. help them to control their weight with motivation. A long time ago, women were chosen for marriage based on their ability to bare a child. If the woman were skinnier, the child would not be as healthy.
These days, women are so sexualized that young girls begin to think that to be accepted in society they must be like that. They must have a tiny waist and a fairly-toned face to be seen as a person.
It is degrading to women in a lot of aspects. Some say it is the choice of the woman to expose her body in such a way therefore not making it deragatory for other women. It is, though.
Bulimia and anorexia can kill a person along with the other things listed above. The minds of children are at stake here. It is only fair that we give them the chance to see things another way. They should know that people care for them even when they aren't the lightest girl around.
You have the right to say no to these magazines.
im a model and ppl say im skinny and pretty but im ALWAYS worrying about becoming fat i know grown ups try to make u feel better of your body and all and lie through their teeth but it doesnt make a difference bcuz we teens will still feel the same way as we always did WE DONT WANT TO BECOME FAT
I'm twelve and I am content with the way I look. Then again, I have better thing to care about than the way I look. It sounds like certain tweens, as we're being called, need to sort out priorities.8)
A lot of guys in high school turn to anabolic steroids to get bigger usually and for those who are over weight use them to lose it. Image is important to guys as well and more so if they are playing sports. All these baseball players in the news doesn't help either.
THe videos of the women and teens that accompany this otherwise intelligent commentary are soft porn, yet nothing is mentioned of the effect that access and nonchalant or tacit acceptance of the types of dancing and fashion shown is in itself something that motivates the desire to be unhealthfully fixated on appearance. "If I am not like Brittany (including higly sexed and dancing like a pole dancer) then I will not be loved." One doesn't even have to go into the morality issue of this kind of video to see its damage to a girl's perceptions and expectations of self and others. A profession I know, a brilliant and ethical woman with several children, told me her 15 year old wants to have a baby by next year. How is this possible with parents like hers? I asked. She said, "Fifteen year olds are stupid." But the steady diet of sex songs and videos on MP 3 Players and tv and dvds and youtube surely has an effect. Why does Common Sense Media use such horrible media images without any meaningful comment on the real damage the images themselves do in the sense of early sexual behavior that leads to pregnance, school dropout, poverty. Come on, connect the dots and don't shrink from being authoritative. That is what the parents tuning in are seeking: A support group for us to be courageous in the face of overwhelmingly damaging media.