Body image

By Alyson

For centuries body image has been one of the most talked about topic amongst people all

around the world. From skinny to fit to abnormal. I used to be overweight, I used to watch all

these body positivity videos where people said “its okay to be fat” “be yourself” when I

watched these videos, I felt better about myself I did not care about the number on the scale.

Mentally I felt good, but physically? honestly it was horrible, I used to get chest pains, I could

not enjoy sports anymore. my family kept warning me but I chose to ignore them, until I

started getting sick more frequently according to ‘the guardian.com’ Obesity may

harm immune system. Obesity can weaken the body's immune system and reduce its ability

to fight off infections, according to scientists. Previous studies have hinted at a link between

obesity and increased risk of bacterial infections, but there has been little research into how

serious the effects are.

I looked at myself in the mirror I saw all the marks around my stomach, I felt disgusting. I

could barely run 200m I could not play football like the way I used to play; my clothes were

getting tighter. When I lost weight, I felt liberated, I felt like a lot of weight has been lifted

from my shoulders, literally.

Does size matter

Personally, I think that size does matters. Coming

from experience I can 100% agree that it matters.

Your health you be your number one priority, eating

less or more calories won’t get you anywhere. You

know what’s funny, on a runway you either see a

really skinny model or a plus sized model not an

‘average’ looking model, I guess that’s how the

world works, no one wants to see average, it’s not

“eye catching”.

All because of society people, teenagers start to

develop eating disorders. If you look at Instagram

models their body is literally the definition of

abnormal, their waist is all skinny and then BAM!!

thick thighs! Instagram models have edited their

photos and have gotten plastic surgery to alter their

looks and there are teenagers around the world

thinking that these plastic bodies are natural. There

are even fitness models that claim they got to their goals by just working out when in reality

they have gotten liposuction even for men there are so many body builders that claim they

are natural when in reality they take steroids. This proves again that people don’t want

average they want unique they want ‘different’.

According to bbc.com, ‘In a survey of 227 female university students, women reported that

they tend to compare their own appearance negatively with their peer group and with

celebrities, but not with family members, while browsing Facebook. The comparison group

that had the strongest link to body image concerns was distant peers, or acquaintances.

How has body image affected the younger generation?

Most of the victims of body image are teenagers. I’m 16, and there is not one day where I

don’t think about the way I look or the number on the scale. When I was 11, I downloaded

Instagram, it was all the rage and it still and always will be. When I opened the app for the

first time…I saw it, I saw all the beautiful models, I saw all these fitness models, I had never

felt so insecure. I would look at these fitness pages non-stop, I wanted to be those pretty, fit

girls. I started to see all these 500kal diet plans there were even these 300kal ones. These

pretty girls said that this was their secret to being the fit, perfect girls they are.

Although, I stumbled across a different page, this page was all about ‘loving yourself’. They

preached about how you “shouldn’t care” about what people have to say about your size or

how you can “eat what ever you wanted”. I fell in love with what they were preaching…then

that’s when it happened, I started to gain weight. Fast forward to 13, I weighed my heaviest

‘70kgs’. According to

phychologytoday.com “Study finds

the body-positive movement is

probably contributing to the obesity

crisis,” and “Normalisation of ‘plus-

size’ risks hidden danger of obesity.” 

Research made by Park Nicollet

Melrose Center shows the

development of poor body image can

start as early as 6 years old. 40% of

elementary school girls and 25% of

elementary school boys want to be

thinner. By late elementary school,

50% of girls are dissatisfied with

weight and shape and have

developed pervasive negative body

esteem. Project EAT reported that

19% of high school girls reported

chronic dieting and 57% engaged in

unhealthy weight control behaviours.

How can we fight this?

It’s time for a change. If you are suffering with body image issues, you need to change the things you

view online. They main source of all this negativity is coming from social media. Change your feed.

Unsubscribe from all those pages that feed you with negativity and lies. And just remember “loving

yourself” doesn’t only mean not caring about what others think about you, it also means that you

should take care of yourself.