Selena DiBiase, Staff Writer

Body image. Something we all struggle with, especially during our teen years in high school. Most teens are insecure about how they look: being too fat, too skinny, too pale, too dark, too short, or too tall. All of these aspects can affect our outlook on our bodies. Popular icons like Victoria’s Secret models create a generation of teens that hate their bodies and look up to unhealthy images. These models lead to many eating disorders because girls starve themselves or overwork their bodies. Even though there is body positivity, most people struggle to love their natural bodies and believe that their bodies need to change in order to fit into “ beauty standards”  of today, such as being a double zero or an extra small.

Especially since COVID-19 caused schools and many other establishments to close,  it has led us to go into social media apps and see people talking about their “glow up from ‘Coronacation.’” This has caused many girls to work out every day, multiple times a day to lose weight and to come back to school attempting to fit into beauty standards that society established for them. These goals are unrealistic to obtain because not everyone has the same body type or body shape as everyone else. This can cause eating disorders and mental problems that will haunt these girls for the rest of their lives. Many girls believe they have to work out to look pretty or impress the boy they like, so they overwork themselves to lose the extra weight to obtain an unrealistic number on the scale.

 Even though we are in the age of body positivity, that still does not help the girls who are fighting to lift their spirits and love their own bodies. If the media continues this image of a skinny girl as seen in almost every clothing store, it will continue to ruin girls’ body image and mental health for generations come. The only way to fight the idea that being skinny equates being pretty or likable is to change the body image that girls see from a young age.  

Many clothing companies have already started to add plus-size models and those with different body types, skin colors, and ages to their marketing for their clothing. Over the past few years, Victoria's Secret has been put under fire since they still use double zero size girls to model their clothing, but recently they have made the switch into adding older women and plus size women into their marketing to the public. By taking these steps, one more company is able to show girls and women that they do not have to fit the standards that society has given them. When girls look up in stores to see model shots and pictures of women wearing the clothing, they will not just see skinny, petite girls, but instead, they will see someone that resembles themselves. This can induce a positive impact on a girl's mental stage and can prevent her from having disorders and anxiety. There are still many things that we must do to prevent mental illnesses from warped body images, but we are now living in a world where there is more body positivity that can prevent this from affecting girls at a young age.