When you look on the front of a magazine cover what do you see? It’s usually a stick thin girl that is typically half naked and tanned, with outrageous unnatural posing and crazy hair and makeup. Teenage girls are always struggling with their appearance, whether they are influenced by the media or by their peers and these unrealistic images of girls are not helping.  It’s considered normal for an adolescent to not be comfortable in their own skin, and that is the case for me as well. Society has made “perfect” so hard to obtain, whether you’re born with it or you pay thousands of dollars for plastic surgery. It’s hard for someone to obtain this status of “perfect” unless you’re famous, or made out of money.

When I look in the mirror, it’s not hard for me to pick out something about myself that I dislike. Either, I’m not comfortable with the way my stomach looks that day, or I’m self-conscious about the way my nose looks or how I smile. Dealing with insecurities isn’t easy to do when high schoolers are constantly bullied about the way they look.  This is one of my flaws, as well as many other girls and boys my age in society. I have a flaw of picking out each and every flaw I see about myself.

Not being comfortable in your own skin and not having a decent amount of self-confidence can take a toll on daily life. I always find myself “stalking” girls that I’m competing against and drooling over how pretty they are. This instantly drops my self-confidence and causes me to pick out my flaws and look in the mirror and tell myself the qualities I don’t have, when I should be doing the opposite. This isn’t something that just happens with people in their teens, adults experience this too. Celebrities that everyone obsesses even have self-confidence issues. 98% of people would look at Jennifer Lopez and think that she lives the perfect life and is extremely happy because she has money, but even she struggles with self-confidence issues. The way media is portraying men and women is unrealistic. Companies such as Dove are launching campaigns that show “real” women instead of stick thin models. In my experience, I am starting to see the ages get younger and younger at which girls start having self-confidence issues. Girls and boys are starting to have self-image problems before they even hit middle school and are fully developed.

As I get older I start to realize that I’m only hurting myself by nitpicking every flaw. In 5 years I hope this flaw in people will deteriorate, not only for me but for everyone else as well. I plan to do this by taking a look in the mirror and instead of listing off the things I don’t like, I will list the things I do like about myself. Lately with pageants I’ve learned that it is mostly mental. If you can’t tell yourself you are beautiful and confident there is no way you’re going to be able to convince other people you are. It has been said for many years that the way media portrays men and women is taking a toll on adolescents and their confidence. I plan to overcome this flaw in less than 5 years.