Media is to Blame for the rise of Teen eating disorders

      There are many reasons that I chose this topic. One of these reasons is that the majority of my friends are anorexic or bulimic, and a couple have binge eating disorder.  And I myself have dabbled in some unhealthy eating habits.  So I have known first hand, and deal with trying to help others on a daily bases, with these tricky self hating and destructive habits.  Originally, I thought that when people developed things like eating disorders, it had to do with them and only them.  Well they want to be super skinny like a model, or well they want to be tiny like a ballerina, or well they want to be slim like an actress. But as I've grown and gotten more mature, I talk to my mother about these types of things, and she helped open my eyes to the real reasons behind eating disorders.  Yes, teens, especially girls, want to be like models, and ballerinas, and actors, but that isn't the problem.  The problem is how the media portrays models, ballerinas, actors, etc.  It's only natural for people to want to be and look like the people they look up to.  However, the way that these people look is no longer natural, magazines and television channels, photo shop and edit these role models till they no longer look like themselves.  They cover these role models face's in make-up, put them on dangerous diets and work out routines, and then go and use computers to change and alter them even more.  So once impressionable youths see their role models, they want to look like them, not realizing that how they see these role models, isn't what they really look like.  Since these impressionable youths can't photo shop their bodies, they start putting themselves down, they build up a cycle of self hate and desperation.  If the media portrayed people in a more realistic way, then these cycles of self hate wouldn't be as frequent of a trend, because the youth of today would be trying to become and look like something real and realistic and reachable.  So now, cause of my mom's wisdom, I know that when people develop eating disorders, it is NOT their own fault, but the fault of the MEDIA.
      On teenhelp.com, they have lots of information on all eating disorders.  They have statistics,and explanations of what each eating disorder is. This article didn't change any of my opinions or views on this topic, but it did support them.  This is because the article says some things, like that the majority of teens with anorexia, are white, and the people that you see in the media who are extremely thin, are four times out of five, white individuals. So this just supports my statement that the media is to blame for the rise/popularity of eating disorders amongst today's youth.
      For this blog post, I interviewed three people on their opinions of this topic.  One is a therapist, one is a ballerina friend whose currently struggling with extreme anorexia, and the other is an older friend of mine whose an incoming freshman at Kenyan college who overcame eating disorders.  The therapist that I talked to had opinions very similar to mine, except she doesn't think that the media is the only fault.  She said that it was one of the two main components, but that family issues and weak relationships with parents is also at fault.  "When a teenager is lacking a strong healthy relationship with their parents, or siblings, or their overall family, it automatically triples the likelihood of them developing an eating disorder, or any other self harming habits.  You are right however, the media still does have a huge impact on teenagers with eating disorders, because subconsciously, teenagers want to be just as cool and stylish and attractive as the photo shopped people they see on TV and in magazines.  They crave to be like these people when they don't feel love and acceptance from their parents, family, siblings, etc.  So it's a combination of the media and of family turmoil" is what the therapist said.  My friend who's fifteen and an incoming sophomore at Whitney Young, blamed it all on herself.  "No, Ali Cat, [a nickname that some of my incredibly close friends call me] it's not the media's fault.  It's my own fault, if I wasn't so revolting, I would eat.  Plain and simple, I don't understand why you would think that it's the medias fault. If you were trying to be a professional ballerina competing against size zero blonds, you'd understand why I don't eat".  Her words can actually support the therapist's statement of it being a subconscious want, to be like the photo shopped people, ballerinas in my friend's case, that we look up to.  My friend whose going into college and has overcame eating disorders  said that agrees that it's medias fault. "Well, all I wanted was to be an actress, to be on the silver screen, to be beautiful, you know.  The whole deal, that's what I wanted. But at a size eleven jeans, that wouldn't happen.  I auditioned for many school plays for my department [she graduated from Lincoln Park High School's theater program],and there was so many times when the part went to a less talented girl, but of course she was way skinnier.  And then once I started going to acting camps and auditioning for roles outside of our crappy little school [LPHS is one of the best high schools in the state, she just doesn't like the people who go there] it got even worse.  I knew that I needed to loose weight, so I did whatever it took" She later went on to mention her role models and how she wanted to be as thin as them and all that, everything she said completely supported my statement.
      Now I feel even more strongly on media being to blame for the popularity of eating disorders amongst teens.  I feel like there isn't much that I can do as an individual on this topic. This has deeply affected me, my friends, and millions of people all around the world.  This isn't like chicken pocks, where you get a vaccination, and then if you get it anyways, it's okay cause you'll be uncomfortable for a couple weeks, but perfectly fine in a year.  With eating disorders, the effects are horrible, and theyre forever.  You can't get a vaccination, you can't undo the damage, and it's nearly impossible to get out of that mindset.  I've educated myself on what all the eating disorders are, who they mostly effect, and how they effect people latter in life.  I've educated others on this as well, I even educated you by writing this blog post.  There's not much more that I as an individual can do. However, WE, as a society, can change this.  And this is definately a fad that we need to work on changing.