...in a girl eat girl world

Being 19 years old, I can completely go along with the fact that the entire female race is in a dog eat dog, or girl eat girl, world. If we aren't being ripped apart for what we're wearing or what we're doing, we're getting picked on for our weight, skin, hair.... and the list goes on and on. So what is the battle really about? Thanks to the bright ideas given to us by the media, if we're a couple pounds over underweight, "we're obese." Thank you designers for showing my clothes on girls that are the size of my arm, but I think I look much better in them. This new trend in using underweight 5' 10" girls to portray the "average" American girl has surely sent self esteem plummeting through the ground for any of us who aren't fixed by photoshop. Is it any surprise that the rise to eating disorders has gone hand-in-hand with the media's recent portrayals of unhealthy body images as being good body images? When the average American citizen is being exposed to nearly 5,000 advertisements per day, and about 40% of those deal with what is and what isn't attractive, its no wonder this is true (National Eating Disorders). About a year ago, I was babysitting a seven year old girl who began crying after watching an AD on TV because she thought she was fat. It is sad to see that first grade girls can't even enjoy a simple life of just having fun, because their worried about "being fat." The media is slowly destroying our society's self esteem. Fifty percent of girls ages 11-13 see themselves as overweight, with 80% of all 13 year olds having attempted to lose weight. Although eating disorders are mostly seen in women, about 1/8 of all eating disorders also impact men (Eating Disorder Statistics). This truly is a serious epidemic in our country that needs to be focused on. My goal here is to raise awareness to the issue, as well as give girls a place to look for comfort and a self esteem boost during the day. As Miranda Lambert, one of my favorite country stars, says on her MySpace page "eating- i LOVE to eat," so do I! So instead of fitting in with what the media wants girls to be, I have curves, and I'm okay with that. I want to show the media what real girls are made of, because I sure as heck know that I'm alot more than skin and bones. We're all different, and we should all be okay with what our mama's gave us. We are all who we are meant to be, inside and out. And each and every one of us is beautiful. "If you're lucky enough to be different from everybody else, don't change." -Taylor Swift