Perfection.

Perfection- Noun; the state or quality of being perfect.

Most people say teenage years are the best of our lives. If this is the best that life is going to be, I'm not sure I want to get older. Teenagers have never felt so much pressure to be perfect until now. Why can we not be like the clichéd teenagers in the movies that just party and fall in love, the ones who do not care about what anyone else thinks? Instead we are constantly fearful of the future and trying to get through life as fast as we can but also trying to get good grades, stay healthy and look good, be social and be happy.

Unlike T.V. real life is messed up sometimes. Fashion adverts and models should come with a warning. Like when you watch T.V. and an advert pops up before a movie that says: "Warning these stunts were performed by a professional - Do NOT try at home". Except: "Warning this was achieved through extreme dieting, over exercising and a harsh use of Photoshop – Do NOT try at home!"

"By middle school 40-70% of girls are dissatisfied with 2 or more parts of their body." These days it is all about the look, style and weight - anything you can think of to judge someone with. The leaner and skinnier teenagers become through these extreme diets advertised the more their bodies replicate the mainstream normal, the unhappier they are becoming. The more they binge the more they purge, often through increasingly vicious exercise regimes. The more they restrict their food intake, obsessively recording calories and carbs the more they feel they have "failed". Got your body fat down into a healthy range? Go for lean. Got down to lean? Go for ripped. Got to ripped? Go for "fat wasting disease (lipodystrophy)". The public want to see those cheekbones! Meanwhile, the folks who started out at, say, 300lbs were thrilled when they could breathe a little easier and get out of bed pain-free. If they cut back unhealthy foods, or their belt felt a little looser, they high-fived themselves.

This is of course, the opposite of what you would expect.

Many recent commentators believe that teenage suicide rates have more than tripled over the last decade. Yet people still sit there wondering why, as if it is not already obvious enough, is it possibly the pressure to be "perfect" that may be one of the deep-rooted reasons? Teenagers see everything differently, "Oh, you're a size 12? Go on a diet, Tubs." "You're a size 6? Stop starving yourself, anorexic." "You ate five slices of pizza? Lay off the food, fatty." "You cut yourself? You must be an Emo." "You have piercings and tattoos? You'll never get a job, idiot." Seriously? The list of put downs go on and on – it is ludicrous.

I cannot see why people still use the term 'self-esteem' because almost no one has any anymore. It is truly pathetic that people have spiralled into this habit of analysing everyone, judging them and scrutinising everything they do. Then you have the models in magazines: the photos bear no resemblance to how they really look – hiding under masses of makeup, lighting and camera angles, not to mention that magical photo editing software fashion magazines love so much. Girls and boys dream of being these people and the media glorifies all of the negative behaviours associated with being thin. It is openly accepting anorexic suffering models because at the end of the day, it sells. Not only that but what are we, the public, meant to think when we know that there are manufacturers and fashion designers out there openly selling and marketing a size that is for someone who is, in reality, either medically underweight or borderline? For example 'Abercrombie & Fitch's' ex-chief executive officer of the clothing empire states that: "We go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

What are parents supposed to think when their children are intentionally harming themselves because they are being tormented or they want to be perfect porcelain dolls with signature flat stomachs and an overrated thigh-gap? Perfect is never the same, perfect is inaccessible. Perfect is in the eye of the beholder. Skinny, pretty and popular are traits that any girl or boy would die for but what is so good about being skinny, pretty and popular anyway? Sure, you have more friends and people like you, but how do you know that it is not all fabricated, how do you know people are not just using you for your popularity? It should not just be popularity that matters.

Moreover, teenagers today are becoming increasingly aware of their "body image" which in turn has devastating effects upon their self-worth, confidence and relationships, therefore not only affecting the young generation but also impacting upon the family unit. Studies show that the increasing focus now is on obesity in our culture and the fixation upon dieting to become beautiful. This is continuously promoted through the media. Some fashion magazines and "pro anorexia" websites have had a huge influence upon the portrayed idea of "beauty" in society today. The findings, following a study of almost 3,000 youngsters aged 11 to 14 from the experts at Queen Mary, University of London and Great Ormond Street Hospital revealed, "half of girls at this age were trying to stay slim. They found that 16% of the 11 to 14 year olds were found to be suffering emotional problems such as depression and low self-esteem, making them more vulnerable to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia." Professor Robert Booy, of Queen Mary's Centre for Child Health stated that, "The increased issues surrounding weight and body image have a huge impact upon child development, their hope, school and social life. Dr Dee Dawson, a children's eating disorder specialist revealed in ITV's 'Tonight' that, "body image appears to be affecting their overall well-being – They have high levels of emotional disorders. Many are unhappy and lacking self-confidence." She also stated that she is treating more young girls for anorexia and bulimia than ever before.

Many girls and boys look up to celebrities, like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, yet they are the ones prancing around in revealing clothing, getting plastic surgery and are caked in make-up. What kind of impact do they have on children or teenagers? It is going to make them feel fat, ugly, gross, and like they are not good enough. This can lead to young people turning to desperate measures to make themselves look and feel like their favourite celebrities.

I myself conducted an experiment within my school. I asked thirty students ranging from 13 to 17 years old to answer a question on whether or not they felt that they were being pressured to fit into society's so called 'beautiful' category – Over 70% of the students said that they felt a huge amount of pressure upon them to be thin and beautiful, to pass their exams and be smart, to be funny and charismatic, to be everything everyone else wants them to be; but that they could not be who they wanted to be. The remaining 30% felt "It should not matter; everyone is beautiful in their own way" They do not understand why people want to be skinny anyway, it does not matter if you are a size 6 or a size 20, we are all human and we are all beautiful.

In conclusion, Western society is suffering an epidemic of young people with low self-esteem. The symptoms of this malaise are: self-loathing, self-harming and, increasingly, suicide. Maybe our parents just need to grab us by the shoulders and scream: "Making yourself sick is not beautiful, being happy with who you are, is."

References:

Google searches

Studies on Teenage Behaviour & Psychology

Medical studies on Anorexia & ED's (Eating Disorders)

Teenage Suicide Rates and Self-harm Statistics

General Research:

http://www.macmh.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/18_Gallivan_Teens-social-media-body-image-presentation-H-Gallivan-Spring-2014.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipodystrophy

http://www.uckg.org/news/?p=35860

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/777433

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-195453/Half-teenage-girls-diet/html