Body Image Awareness!

Here at The Youth Life Project, we're on point and up to date with the latest fashion trends, but that's not all that we're about. As a charity that represent young people, we understand and emphasise with the issues that face every person. Especially the young.

Here at TYLP we want to stress that it's important for people to remember that the models and actors you idolise starve themselves, punish themselves with extreme workouts and endure surgery to look the way they do! You need to build a positive relationship with your body. Your body is the most valuable asset you will ever own. "Studies have shown that when people participate in even moderate exercise, such as walking, they feel more connected and better about their bodies".

 Learn to appreciate your body for what it can do, not for what it looks like. Maybe even make a list of those things you like about your body. A list of your traits that you really like. Think about the people you admire and look up to. You admire these individuals because of who they are, not because of what they look like. After all "you cant judge a book by it's cover".

I think we're all guilty of feeding into the ridiculous nature of the media’s portrayal of body image. As beautiful as these celebrities are in real life, most of the images you See of them are not real. The images below demonstrate this.

I wont harp on too much about what you should and shouldn't do to feel good about yourself, but I will provide you some shocking statistics about body image, and some of my favourite body image quotes and images.

If everyone looked exactly the same, life would be boring. Be unique, be you and be proud! -TYLP

"Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth". -- Aesop

"Someones opinion of you does not have to become your reality". -- Les Brown

                "Imperfection equals beauty.. we are all imperfect". 

"When you consider yourself valuable you will take care of yourself in all ways that are necessary." --M. Scott Peck

"Think highly of yourself because the world takes you at your own estimate." -- Author Unknown

  "In order to be replacabale one must always be diffrernt"-Coco Chanel

                                          

 Body image statistics
In 1970 the average age a girl started dieting was fourteen; by 1990 the average age dropped to eight.

One half of 4th grade girls are on a diet.

51% of nine and ten year old girls stated they felt better about themselves when they were adhering to a diet.

Frequent dieting is highly correlated with depression.

While only one out of ten high school girls are overweight, nine out of ten high school juniors and seniors diet.

81% of ten year old girls are afraid of being fat.

A study found that adolescent girls were more fearful of gaining weight, than getting cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents.

A study asked children to assign attractiveness values to pictures of children with various disabilities. The participants rated the obese child less attractive than a child in a wheelchair, a child with a facial deformity, and a child with a missing limb.

95% of individuals who diet as opposed to those who follow a healthy food plan will gain their lost weight back in one to five years.

A University of Central Florida study of three to six year old girls found that nearly half were already worried about being fat.

In general poor body image is one of the first eating disorders symptoms often displayed

One out of every four television commercials sends out some sort of message about attractiveness.

One study documented that viewing music videos featuring thin women led to an increase in body dissatisfaction.

80% of women who answered a People magazine survey responded that images of women on television and in the movies make them feel insecure.

Actresses Julia Roberts Cameron Diaz and singer Diana Ross all meet the Body Mass Index physical criteria for Anorexia.

79% of teenage girls who vomit and 73% of teenage girls who use diet pills are frequent readers of women’s health and fitness magazines. This is in contrast to less than 43% of teenage girls who do not participate in these purging methods.

Body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders are more prevalent among females than males.

Model/Actress Elizabeth Hurley stated in Allure magazine “I’ve always thought Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, but I’d kill myself if I was that fat.”

Pamela Anderson is 5’7” and weights 120 pounds. She is supposed to be the voluptuous ideal yet she is 11% below ideal body weight. In contrast, a generation ago Marilyn Monroe set the beauty standard at 5’5” and weighed 135 pounds. Today her agent would probably tell her she had to lose weight!

Women and girls are also consistently taught from an early age that their self-worth is largely dependent on how they look. The fact that women earn more money than men in only two job categories, those of modelling and prostitution serves to illustrate this point (Wolf, 1992).