Angelica+Editorial

You’re So Hot! And I’m So Not. By: Angelica Toscano

In our generation of media, many young, teenage girls are affected physically and mentally by what they see on magazines. And the thing is, magazines are sold everywhere so teens are always being exposed to them day in and day out. They see how the models look and aspire to be just like them. But what they don't know is that many of those models don't really look like that. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of "The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls" says: "The body has become the central personal project of American girls." Girls want their body to be perfect because that is what the magazines show, so the teenagers put their bodies at risk. Some overweight girls turn to anorexia or bulimia as the answer to losing weight without even realizing that they are damaging their bodies. As long as they look "hot" as __[|Sheila Gibbons]__, a WeNews commentator, says in her article, they are willing to do anything to achieve “beauty”. "Magazines, not television, seem to have the strongest relationship to eating disorders," says Rose M. Kundanis, author of "Children, Teens, Families and Mass Media: The Millennial Generation.

If I every wanted to be a model, it would be out of the question because I don't meet the height requirement. Why do models need to meet a required height? We have plus size models why can't we have short models? Beautiful used to mean so many thing but now, in our generation, it's a specific thing. Like for example, if you don't have a “hot bod” then you're not beautiful, or if you have braces you're ugly. Beauty has no meaning. No girl is the same so that means that every girl is pretty in her own way. Even if it isn't physical beauty they could have a great personality. You can't judge someone by how they look because everyone looks different. In a article by By Heidi Sauer & Rebecca Robles-Piña, Ph.D. called " __[|Teen Magazines vs. Adolescent Girls]__ " they took a pole with random women and one said that the ideal girl had to be " 5'7", 120 lbs., bust size 36D, waist size 24", hips 36", nice personality, sensitive, caring, dressed nicely with make up on, and hair and nails done". That's a shocker! Not all women can meet those standards. And it was a woman that said this so it shows how badly the media has affected her is she thinks those things are what make a woman beautiful.

What these magazines should be doing is showing the young girls that being different is okay. They need to know that just because they don't look like Beyonce doesn't mean they aren't pretty. And if they see more normal people ( the non-makeup covered, humble people) on magazines then they will feel better about themselves. They just need to feel like they are beautiful and by showing them that not only the models on magazines are, we are boosting their confidence.