Notes

"Why Are Self-Esteem and Body Image Important?
Self-esteem is all about how much people value themselves, the pride they feel in themselves, and how worthwhile they feel. Self-esteem is important because feeling good about yourself can affect how you act. A person who has high self-esteem will make friends easily, is more in control of his or her behavior, and will enjoy life more.
Body image is how a person feels about his or her own physical appearance.
For many people, especially people in their early teens, body image can be closely linked to self-esteem. That’s because as kids develop into teens, they care more about how others see them."
1. Source: Kids Health
I think it is important to understand exactly what is part of self perception/ self-image. This part of the article is crucial in explaining what exactly having a good self-image can do for ones self-esteem. Its shown that self-image and self-esteem go hand in hand; a good self-image of oneself increases self esteem, which increases happiness, personality, motivation and a persons overall life. This article also states the ever so true fact that as teens grow up they care more about what people think. That being said, what the media "shows" the public as normal or average, is drilled into minds and constantly being compared to real teens. As a teenager, I can vouch that I am guitly of seeing magazine models, clothing models or airbrushed tv stars and subconsiously doing the good old comparison of my body or even others to the image I constantly see plastered around as "average."

"Outside Influences
It’s not just development that affect self-esteem, though. Lots of other factors (like media images of skinny girls and bulked-up guys) can affect a person’s body image too.
Family life can sometimes influence a person’s self-esteem. Some parents spend more time criticizing their children and the way they look than praising them. This criticism may reduce a person’s ability to develop good self-esteem."

2. Source: Kids Health
Again, I believe that is important to realize the factors that influence teens self-image. As stated, the media has a significant role in how kids view themselves. We are constantly bombarded with images of skinny, perfect skinned, perfect hair bearing girls in magazines where they are perceived as the normal girl. Thanks to the constant reminder of what is the so called norm, teenage girls that aren't stick skinny or have a couple pimples or suffer a bad hair day from time to time, see themselves as ugly or not normal. The same goes to guys aswell; the pressure to have rock hard abs or chizzled arms and stylish hair is out there being thrown in their faces as well.

"People may also experience negative comments and hurtful teasing about the way they look from classmates and peers. Sometimes racial and ethnic prejudice is the source of such comments. Although these comments often come from ignorance on the part of the person who makes them, sometimes they can affect a person's body image and self-esteem."
3. Source: Kids Health
Because the media has such a wide influence on teens, its inevitable that judging/teasing occurs from almost all of ones peers. If everyone is told that everyone should look a certain way, then if someone doesn't they are damed a freak or nerd or some other stereo type. Movies depict the nerds, the goths, the freaks all as people who don't look like the typical teenager. We've all grown up seeing movies with characters like this. So how are we to escape this type of profiling in our normal lives? We've been doomed since before we knew it.

"They have ads of how you should dress and what you should look like and this and that, and then they say, 'but respect people for what they choose to be like.' Okay, so which do we do first?"
Kelsey, 16, quoted in Girl Talk
4. I found this quote on the Media Awareness network page for "Media and girls" and found it to be absolutly correct. A 16 year old girl says it perfectly. Teenagers are being shown how to dress to be cool, how to act to be cool, etc. but then try to get kudo points by contradicting themselves and telling us to respect people who dare to be different. Its a confusing message that is ever so common in todays society and no doubt confuses teens on how to view others. If one can't view others in a positive light because they just don't know what that is thanks to the constant condradictory messages, how can they view themselves in a positive light?

"Television, magazines, newspapers and various other outlets give portrayals of the ideal body image on a daily basis. They selectively center their coverage and advertising around the most svelte of models, pop stars and other celebrities, suggesting this is the look of success. When was the last time you saw a plus size model gracing the cover of a magazine? Our impressionable teens are made to believe they must conform to a certain body type, and are willing to resort to extreme measures in order to achieve this look. Self esteem and health suffers in the relentless pursuit of these unrealistic goals. The way the media portrays these beautiful, slender people only adds to the problem of eating disorders and mental illness, that jeopardize the health of teens."
5. Source: Helium.com (Teen body image and the media)
I just felt that this segment of the article sums up the problem with teens and the media's influence very nicely. It shows the long term effects of the constant faulty imformation that is being drilled into teens minds of the what the average kid looks like, such as eating disorders, mental illnesses, low self-esteem, a poor self-perception, etc.
Media: the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely.
Self-image: the idea, conception, or mental image one has of oneself.
6. Source: Dictionary.com
Basically, I think that the basic definitions of what media and what self-image are, are crucial parts to get my point across. Its the basics, but I plan on using these basic definitions to start out and then elaborate on them more and more with details and facts to support them.

According to the Monitoring the Future Survey by The University of Michigan, in 2006, 2.7% of high school seniors reported they had tried steroids at least once in their lifetime. The majority of those who fall victim to teenage steroid abuse are male athletes seeking to better their performance in sports, be more competitive in the pursuit of athletic scholarships, or to gain recognition outside of the arena. Females as well as males have shockingly admitted trying steroids as early as age 11, and are said to most commonly do so for aesthetic purposes.
7. Source: Steroidabuse.com
Again to prove that the media has an influence on not only teenage girls and their weight, but also males and their bodies. Seeing pro-athletes that have chizzled muscles and are playing for top professional teams and also have girls swooning over them left and right; what guy wouldn't want that? But what most don't understand is that at 16, 17 and 18 they're still growing and usually, its naturally physically impossible to look like one of the pros at that age. But its not even just the pro-atheletes that influence this ideal of jacked jocks; teen targeted TV shows show high school aged characters played by 21+ guys, that play the roll of an average football player, soccer player, baseball player or basketball player. And again, they get the girl.
The majority of today's female models and actresses are thin to the point of anorexic. In fact, the unhealthily thin look has gotten to the point where a new term was coined to describe it: heroin chic. This term can be traced back to Calvin Klein, the clothing designer who is probably most identified with presenting controversial female role models. From his days utilizing an underage Brooke Shields to sell scandalously tight jeans to a notorious mid-90s campaign that was so offensive it resulted in an investigation by the Dept. of Justice to determine if any kiddie porn laws had been violated, Klein has been at the forefront of the effort to manipulate body image desires. No fool, Klein cashed in on the popularity of the grunge music scene in the early 90s with its attendant heroin use and began presenting models, most famously Kate Moss, who were so thin they looked like heroin addicts. While grunge music essentially went the way of Kurt Cobain with his suicide, unfortunately the heroin chic can still be found in magazines.
8. Source: Associatedcontent.com
Heroin chic; seriously? Seriously. I don't really know what I could say about this part of the article besides that fact that it is disturbingly accurate. Models today just look unhealthy most of the time, yet sti