Outline

Title How the media affects teenager’s self-image
Introduction
II. Body
A. What is the importance behind teenager’s self-image?
1. Self-image coincides directly with self-esteem. Bad image
of oneself, more bad feelings about oneself.
2. Self-esteem is all about how much people value themselves, the pride
they feel in themselves, and how worthwhile they feel.
3. A good self-image of oneself increases self esteem, which increases
happiness, personality, motivation and a persons overall life.
4. 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.
B. Outside influence on teenagers thoughts
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. The same goes to guys as well; the pressure to have rock hard abs or
chizzled arms and stylish hair is out there being thrown in their faces
as well.
4. Escaping the TV, the newspapers, the magazines, the tabloids, the
movies’ constant ridicule and constant reminder that we do not look
like the “average” kids they depict, is inevitable.
C. The problem for guys
1. 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.
2.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.
3. 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, it’s naturally physically
impossible to look like one of the pros at that age.
4. But its not even just the pro-athletes 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.
D. Eating disorders develop for the girls.
1. The average woman model weighs up to 25% less than the typical
woman and maintains a weight at about 15 to 20 percent below what is
considered healthy for her age and height. Some models go through
plastic surgery, some are "taped-up" to mold their bodies into more
photogenic representations of themselves, and photos are airbrushed
before going to print.
2. With an increased population of children who spend a lot of time in
front of television, there are more of them coming up with a superficial
sense of who they are. Images on T.V. spend countless hours telling us to
lose weight, be thin and beautiful, buy more stuff because people will
like us and we'll be better people for it.
3. Diet advertisements are another problem. On television, in magazines
and newspapers, we are continually exposed to the notion that losing
weight will make us happier and it will be through "THIS diet plan".
Time and time again it has been proven that, for the long-term,
regimented diet plans DO NOT work, yet our society continues to buy
into the idea that they do. Pop-culture's imposed definition of "the ideal
body" combined with the diet industry's drive to make more money,
creates a never-ending cycle of ad upon ad that try to convince us "...if
you lose weight, your life will be good."
4. Current statistics indicated that approximately one in every one
hundred teenage girls may develop an Eating Disorder.
Conclusion
Though we may not always notice it immediately, the media is an extreme influence on how teenagers view themselves and others. It isn’t their fault that they see themselves this way, considering they grow up in a society were image is something that is deemed important.