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A 13 year old once told me that her and her friends know what they see in magazines is not real.  "It's airbrushed", she said.  I asked her, then why do so many girls want to be super thin and look like some of their favourite celebrities?  "It's because of the boys", she said.  "That's what they want to see".

In 2010, a poll was conducted (by UK's top cosmetic surgery review websites www.goodsurgeonguide.co.uk) of 1078 teenage girls who were asked what they felt about airbrushing.  These were the results:

• 87% acknowledged that celebrity images were airbrushed and not a true indicator of what they actually looked like.  Regardless they admitted, they still aspired to look like them.
• Girls wanted to look like the following top 10 celebrities (the ones with the "*" beside their names are the ones they believed to be most often airbrushed) :

1. Katy Perry* - 69%
2. Frankie Sandford - 64%
3. Cheryl Cole* - 61%
4. Beyonce - 57%
5. Britney Spears* - 54%
6. Abbey Clancy - 53%
7. Fergie* - 51%
8. Nicole Scherzinger* - 48%
9. Victoria Beckham - 46%
10. Rihanna - 44%

• 58% of the girls admitted to having a celebrity role model.

(ref: http://looksinfo.com/teens-know-celebrities-are-airbrushedbut-aspire-to-look-like-them-anyway.html)

Whether it's because girls want to impress boys, or because they want to mimic their idols, or because they think it's cool, or whatever the reason, it is clear that youth feel pressure to look and act a certain way.  This pressure ultimately stems from the portrayal of young women in  the media.  Girls tend to emulate what they see, the trouble however, is that often girls in the media are portrayed as sex objects.  Girls are sexualized in many forms of entertainment - on t.v., in the movies, in songs, in video games and on stage.  It's everywhere. We see its effects in everyday life.  When we go shopping, recent fashion trends have dictated showing more skin, and tighter clothes for all ages, we even see scantily clad dolls for kids.  

While expectations of how to act and dress may be based in false reality, this type of pressure can lead to a whole bunch of issues - low self esteem, weight issues, promiscuity, addiction.

Check out the site and see if anything hits home.  Be informed, be smart, play safe.

This blog is dedicated to my daughter Naiya and all the young girls out there who are trying to find their way.