Why Body Image Is an Issue

Why Body Image Is an Issue

Sara Mendes(11th), Reporter

In high school, everyone ,especially girls, are so focused on their body image and making sure that they look good for other people. I’m one of those people. I want to know why in high school the most important thing for many is body appearance.

The problem has escalated dramatically in the years and most of it comes from  girls, but some guys have this problem too. I went on a journey and found a few people with opinions in this topic.

Tyler Cannella, freshman, had his own opinion on body image and appearance.

“Body image to me isn’t important on a girl and I personally don’t think guys should stress too much about their image. Because a person is them, based on their mind and what makes them, their body image isn’t that important to me it’s really just the person in general and how they are are”.

Coming from a guy this really had me shocked just because a lot of guys now only look at girls for their body and I thought that this was really thoughtful in a sense. Cannella also had something to say about why he believes people are so focused on it.

“Because society portrays that your body is who you are and that’s your image and that’s completely wrong because you make that image for yourself and you make who you are and you’re the only one who can change yourself”.

Cannella also had his opinion on who struggles with the problem more.

“I think girls struggle more with it, but some guys still get bullied from it, but I think girls have a harder time because other girls can be really rude or nasty in a sense and it can break a girl down and make her feel worse about themselves. No I don’t. I love my body and everything that I have because it makes me who I am”.

It’s brave of him to answer these questions that others would feel uncomfortable responding to.

After hearing a boy’s personal opinion on it, I then decided to go to a woman about this: one of our school counselors, Kristie Frank. I used this as an opportunity to ask her if she had students come to her about self image issues.

She said, “yes I have had them, but it’s not like how most people think. This topic can literally come up in casual conversation”.

Frank had this to say about whether girls or guys struggle more with body image.

“The media has a big impact on girls. They feel more pressured to look a certain way because that’s what they think they need to look like when that isn’t true. Everyone’s different and they can have days where they feel so comfortable with their body, but other days they just want to huddle down and just hide. Being positive about your body starts with self love and self acceptance of yourself as a whole. We also need to remember, on the media sometimes those things aren’t real and that everyone’s body is different, but it’s so important to love who you are as a whole, body and everything”.

These statements can make anyone reflect whether or not they struggle with body image.

All in all, writing about this was a real eye opener. Just remember for any girl or guy reading this, you guys are beautiful in your way and I hope all of you enjoy this piece and hopefully all you guys learn something from this.