Television has been accused, more than once, of actively promoting body perfection, but websites are taking things into a new dimension.
| Girls are certainly influenced by the media and their role models tend to be very thin. |
Take Living on oxygen, a website which claims to be pro-anorexic and actually celebrates the disorder. Probably the most chilling part of this site are its 10 skinny commandments which include 'Thou shalt not eat.'
"The website shows us horrifying photographs of young female models who are nothing other than skin and bones," says Sheena Hall,14.
"They are trying to brainwash us and I think, somehow, they are succeeding."
Eating disorder expert Dr Clare Adams says that, in her work helping young people overcome eating problems, the media is only one part of a bigger problem: "Girls are certainly influenced by the media and their role models tend to be very thin. However, social influences are rarely enough to cause an eating disorder.
"The media can influence those who are already vulnerable and have perfectionist qualities mixed with poor self esteem."
According to Dr. Adams, the battle to accept body shape goes on in the mind: "Anorexia's a very old illness and if you look right back into history you'll find people fasting.
"Because of this, the medical profession people tried to link anorexia to physical illnesses. But really, from about the 1940s, it's been much more accepted as a sort of psychological disorder."
Maybe that is why some thin people complain of being overweight, something that Sheena Hall dislikes having to listen to: "It makes me feel fatter if someone really skinny is complaining about their weight. I think that being thin makes a person attractive but it can be ugly if you're too skinny," she said.
Searching for perfection, but never actually finding it, is not an activity restricted to overweight young people. Local modelling guru Tracy Hall says she has yet to meet a model that is completely happy with her appearance.
"They don't like their nose, they think there bums are too big or their thighs are too big or their arms are too skinny or their chest isn't big enough. None of the models I know are happy with themselves."
Ms Hall feels it's unreasonable to put all the blame for body image at the media's feet. As she says, the girls on television are going to be thin, no matter what they eat.
"I think most models are what I would call naturally slim people - skinny girls who stuff their faces and never put on an ounce.
"You're either one of those people or you're not. I know I'm not, my sister eats what she likes and is very, very thin. I just look at anything fattening and I put on weight."
Stephanie McCann, 15, says that the culture of skinniness promoted by the media, modelling and websites has blown the weight issue out of all proportion: "We need a more down- to- earth approach. Being too skinny is disgusting. You need a bit of flesh on you to give you shape, but then nobody wants to be fat either.
"We should never really judge someone, or ourselves, by the way we look. Life is too short."
About the team
This story was produced by Amanda McAteer, 14, Stephanie McCann, 15, and Sheena Hall, 14. It was published in the News Letter in Northern Ireland.
Read more Children's Express stories on this subject:
If you don't feel pretty, you damn well best be thin
Ever-decreasing stars
