All too often, society associates being "thin", with "hard-working, beautiful, strong and self-disciplined." On the other hand, being "fat" is associated with being "lazy, ugly, weak and lacking will-power." Because of these harsh critics, rarely are teenagers completely satisfied with their image. As a result, they often feel great anxiety and pressure to achieve and/or maintain an imaginary appearance.
The Australian Longitudinal Study of Girl’s Health, which included 14,686 young women aged 18-23 years, revealed 66.5% had a BMI within a healthy weight range, however only 21.6% of these young women were happy with their weight. The pressures on young people to look good
- Low self esteem increases the chance of developing disordered eating.
- A recent survey of 600 Australian children found that increasingly, children are disturbed by the relentless pressure of marketing aimed at them. A large majority (88%) believed that companies tried to sell them things that they do not really need.
- A large number (41%) of children are specifically worried about the way they look with 35% concerned about being overweight (44% of girls and 27% of boys) and 16% being too skinny.
- A 2007 Sydney University study of nearly 9,000 adolescents showed one in five teenage girls starved themselves or vomit up their food to control their weight. Eight per cent of girls used smoking for weight control.
- A recent survey of 29,000 young Australians found Body Image was the most concerning issue for young people (32.3%)
- The average child in the UK, US and Australia sees between 20,000 and 40,000 television advertisements per year. They are bombarded with images about how they should look and what they should own. Children struggle to keep up, suffering from anxiety, stress and lower satisfaction in themselves.
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