About 4% of teens are estimated to have an eating disorder, most lasting between 1 and 15 years. They usually start off as an idea to "get healthy" and get rid of the "muffin top" and "extra flab." But what most teens don't realize is how dangerous an eating disorder is, and for that matter, how dangerous going on a diet can get.

Many of my friends have commented about their chunkiness, their ugly _____ (I've heard it all: thighs, hips, shoulders, stomach), and the questions of "why does she look like this and I look like that?" It pains me the most when girls I know aren't in reality overweight, but constantly poke at themselves and their weight. Harsh - and often untrue - thoughts like that can lead to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and self-harm - and at the least, a mental disorder of self-hatred.

I believe this generation of bulimic and anorexic teens has been spurred by influences from TV, the Internet, and magazines. In this day and age, "sexy" sells, and "sexy" is what every woman is pressured to be. By portraying bony, sick models all over the place - billboards, advertisements, commercials - we are causing teens to have a negative body attitude. They think they don't measure up to the perfect (and impossible) standards our society poses, and so they have to diet to change that. Even someone who doesn't watch a lot of TV or doesn't go on the Internet a lot is bombarded by criticism from other girls - and even if that isn't true, she is someone aware that she's not "as good" as the other girls her age if she isn't as thin.

Girls, please understand the deadly implications of an eating disorder. There is no need to diet to change the natural beauty you have - yes, you should exercise, yes, you should eat according to your body, but even if you don't look the way you might want to, rejoice in the body you were given. Make the effort to compliment other girls and women on their beauty, and you might even prevent someone from having an eating disorder. And that makes you a million times more beautiful than a thigh gap.