Anorexia in the Teens of America

With more and more teenage girls suffering from eating disorders, it almost seems that we can do nothing but blame ourselves for creating a society in which an eating disorder seems necessary for a young person. When a teen begins to suffer from anorexia nervosa, it is never just a random snap into having the disease. There are always conditions that have lead up to the teen feeling like she can’t be good enough, or that she needs to change her own image. These conditions come from every single aspect of a teen’s life.

The main culprit blamed for teen anorexia is the media. Many media images depict women as being extremely thin and busty. This is an image that seems to pervade through the media, and may create the delusion in a young girl that this is how all women were meant to be. Lots of girls are naturally a bit chubby during their younger years. When they look at themselves in the mirrors and compare themselves with the magazines and TV ads that they are constantly assaulted with, it can seem like there is a huge deficiency.

This perfect image created by society is not really what a girl should look like, and this should always be made clear to young girls who have grown up around these sorts of images. Models in magazines are usually modified by computer programs extensively, and not even the models look how they look in the magazine. It is a strange and double-sided standard that society had drawn up, and it should not be endangering the health of young girls.

Many girls can also be affected by their peers. Girls at a young age are often extremely brutal in their teasing. A few insults that another girl says or hints at in passing could leave the other girl completely crushed, thinking of nothing but the negative comment. It is unfortunate that girls can be affected so much by the thoughts or comments of a peer, but it is true. In order for anorexia to truly be taken care of, everyone in a girl’s life must be supportive. Not just her family, but her peers as well. Once all of these influences can be altered or removed from the lives of young and impressionable girls, anorexia will quit being a problem.