Actions of Adolescence

“We live in a look-obsessed, media-saturated, �girl poisoning’ culture” (Pipher, 1994). Girls these days are looking for someone who they can base their life upon, a good mentor. Unfortunately, most of the women girls choose to idolize are photo shopped, or are not comparable to regular persons. Wanting to be like these women is causing a lot of problems, in the adolescent girl who already has enough problems as it is. As some men like to think, boys don’t have to worry about adolescence as much because of a popular belief that boys don’t strive for the same kind of perfection as young girls. “We expect too much of boys—and we don’t expect enough” (Kindlon & Thompson, 2000). Boys don’t have the same pressured, but they do have pressures that are unrealistic. Some major issues in adolescence today consist of body image, depression and school performance that can lead to suicide.

One issue that leads to suicide is body image. “Body Image refers to an individual’s thoughts and feelings about their own body and physical appearance” (Hargreaves & Tiggermann, 2006). Movies, newspapers, television, magazines, and the internet are growing to be more responsible for feelings that young girls have every day. Young girls are just starting to develop and go through changes during their adolescence. There are a lot of questions, and most don’t have clear cut answers, or they are too embarrassed to ask someone. Girls set high, almost impossible goals to reach in order to be looked at as popular, or in some mindset, just acceptable. Girls try everything possible to look their best. They go on diets and run around the block to exercise. Most girls will grow tired of their regiment, and forget about the diets and exercise and move on to something else because “it didn’t work”. On the other hand, some girls are overly obsessed with their workout routine, and they see their goal just out of reach. If this behavior goes unnoticed for an extended period of time, serious consequences can present themselves. It seems that ever since we were born, girls try to act older and much more mature than they really are. They play dress up, house and mimic older siblings. When the desired result isn’t achieved, girls can develop low self-esteem, become depressed or try to hide from the world. Slowly the media is changing its focus from extremely skinny and beautiful women, to “normal” average sized women that have great personalities and something to offer the world. One example is Oprah. She is, by no means, the “model type,” but people love her because she presents good ideas and she believes in herself without trying to be fake to be liked.

Even though body image is mainly associated with girls, boys have problems with this issue as well during adolescence. Researchers say that boys have the same “negative body image” as women and girls, but it is less obvious because they don’t know how to express their feelings about it without being seen as a “wimp.” Instead of focusing on weight, boys focus on how much muscle they have. Hey would rather be a little bigger than being a stick. Some guys do feel they are overweight and start exercising. Media plays a part in the boys’ adolescence because of infomercials. There are always ads on television for new protein shakes or bowflex, or even John Basdow with his “fitness made Simple” tapes. They also see through television and movies that girls are attracted to men with muscles and six packs. As most teenage boys, they are willing to do practically anything and everything to get attention from the girls. If they don’t have the body, they may become depressed, which is common for teenagers.

There are many reasons for a girl to become depressed. One reason that I already mentioned was body image. Some girls think they are too fat, and that people won’t like or talk to them because they aren’t standard size, shape, or height. This is a classic example of having an imaginary audience, where they think everyone is looking at them and paying attention to the slightest change. From a personal experience, some people don’t know they are depressed. I went through a couple months of depression, part of it was body image, and the other part was that I was getting bored with my classes and not wanting to do anything. I ended up just sitting around and doing nothing. After about a month, I was back to myself. Like my case, most people when they are depressed they don’t feel like doing any work. Being depressed doesn’t change the factor that made you depressed in the first place. If you are worried about your body image, if you are depresses, you won’t feel like working out to help, or eve think about eating right, if anything,