After witnessing the image of beauty change throughout my teenage years, I have seen and heard about more cases of anorexia/bulimia. Being curvy used to be seen as being beautiful, but today it is the jutting collar bones, stick thin limbs and prominent cheek bones that have young people turning to eating disorders.
This illusion that thin is beautiful is everywhere; in magazines, newspapers, television and the internet. I even feel pressure to be thin after reading a magazine, so I can understand how some young people take it to the extreme. I watched a programme about an 8 year old anorexic called Dana. It shocked me seeing such a young child being pressured into being thin. The real shock was the amount she had done in order to get so thin.
Dana explained how she would run up and down the stairs 100 times each night, and when her mother asked her to stop she said she physically couldn’t. She believed the voices in her head were telling her to do it. She used to starve herself and counted calories in everything she was eating. After watching this programme I started to understand how serious these eating disorders are. Over 1.1 million Britons are known to suffer from an eating disorder, with the majority of these being young females. I think the reason more girls suffer from an eating disorder than boys is that there is more publicity around stick thin females than males. In my opinion, designers should use more full-figured models as a way of promoting a healthy body image.
Instead of promoting unhealthy, unrealistic body images the media should be making families aware of the signs and symptoms of an eating disorder so sufferers can be recognized and treated early on. It came up in the news recently that the number of girls under 16 being admitted to hospital with anorexia has risen. It is thought this rise is due to the number of sufferers not being treated early enough and being left until they are dangerously ill. This is a serious problem and I think more action is needed to spot cases of anorexia and bulimia. Once a case is spotted the person should be monitored and if they continue to show signs of an eating disorder they should be admitted to hospital immediately.
One girl I read about who was left untreated for too long is supermodel Luisel Ramos who suffered a heart attack and died instantly on the catwalk. Her family had no idea of her eating disorder. With shocking stories like these people should become more aware of the dangers of eating disorders and how to prevent or help sufferers. And hopefully in the near future the image of beauty will become bigger and better.
About this article
This article was written by Laura Lee, 16, from Belfast.
