Teens vs. the Media

In the media we are told to be this perfect person, but when you truly think about what the media says, it is all contradictions -- making us have a constant tug of war with ourselves.
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The conflict I believe most teen's deal with is against the media. The media is giving us these standards that are unrealistic. There's this idea of a "box" and if you don't fit into it you are called names such as loser, idiot, ugly, gross, etc. I want to know how many teens in the world, especially girls, have a subscription to at least one magazine? Then I would like to know how many know that their magazines are filled with lies?

What most people don't know is that these models on the cover of magazines that us teens are striving to be are mostly fake. There is this invention called "airbrush." This allows the editor to make you look so thin and take away any flaws on your legs, hips, stomach, arms, face, shall I go on? Then you have magazine covers where the person isn't even real. How many people knew that? I didn't. Editors can take the body of one girl and put it with another girl's head with another girl's eyes and another's hair... Do you get the point? These amazing people we look up to, the "celebrities," are really just this fake idea. In our society the celebrities are these perfect people. They all look beautiful and they are rarely embarrassed. They know exactly what to say, what to wear. Have you ever seen the snapshots of them when they're just out and about? They don't look so great they just look like everybody else.

In the media we are told to be this perfect person. When you truly think about what the media says, it is all contradictions. You need to be thin but not overly thin. You need to be smart but not smarter than others. Our media is making us have a constant tug of war with ourselves and also making us judge others who are not "in the box." Did you ever realize that when someone is different than most people we call them weird or freaks? Then tell me, did you ever notice that you're also different but not showing it too much because you don't want to be picked on and you want to be in this illusive box?

What if we all just loved ourselves? So many people battle anorexia and bulimia in order to be this perfect person. Why must we stride to be something we are not? What people should do is learn to love the person they truly are. What took me a long time to do, which I just learned this summer, is that everybody is perfect in his or her own way. Many people don't think about this but if we learned that most people are battling with who they are are, and we all just accepted each other, then we could have a better world.

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