To celebrities, teens, internet stars and anyone inbetween,
 
“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.”- Amy Bloom

As you may know, body shaming is becoming a huge issue on social media platforms, most specifically YouTube and Instagram. The tragic thing about this is that no one now can post a picture of themselves in a bathing suit on vacation because they feel good about themselves. If a teenage girl did that today, most likely they would be told they are too skinny, too fat,, or too attention-seeking. But if there are all these parameters on what women can’t look like, then what should they look like? According to Dosomething.org, “Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media” (Dosomething.org).

One of the more infamous events in social media this year was YouTuber Nicole Arbour’s video titled ‘Dear Fat People’. This video raised so much controversy over her ideas on body type and resolutions to the rising epidemic of obesity. In the video, she makes fun of obese people, and at the end claimed that she was trying to help them by shaming them into eating right and exercising. Arbour has received much criticism over her video, eventually getting her channel taken away for a day. Regardless of what she meant by it, the jokes made hurt a lot of people, and for teens that were fans of hers, it told them that you had to be skinny to be accepted by people. This is just one example of how the media is shaming people into trying to be skinny.

The effects of videos and ideas like in Arbours video are just the causes to damaging issues. People will do harmful and ultimately crazy things to their bodies to get it where the want it. Plastic surgery is becoming a huge industry, especially in today’s world. Women think that they can just surgically remove or reshape a part of them that they don’t like, when they should be learning to love themselves. Plastic surgery can cause more insecurities, and make women more desperate to change a part of them that they don’t think is exactly perfect. Soon, these women are more plastic then they are human. Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are also big risks in body image. Anorexia is a psychological disorder where a person feels they need to eat as little as possible and compulsively exercise. Bulimia is where a person will binge on food, and then force themselves to regurgitate it later in order to not gain weight. Both of these disorders are physically and emotionally damaging. “95% of people with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.” (Dosomething.org). Social media just fuels girls and women to desire a body type that is unrealistic and very hard to manage.

Luckily, a lot of awareness is being created over the controversy of body shaming. A lot of the media is trying to get across the fact that being comfortable in your own skin is what matters. Milestones for heavy women are popping up all over the place. Sports illustrated just got a new “curvy” bikini model. Models, actors, and singers are speaking out about photoshop and how unrealistic it is. Project Runway contestant Ashley Nell Tipton, just won for her collection for plus sized women. Celebrities like Rebel Wilson and Meghan Trainor constantly set positive goals towards women and teens since they seem so confident in themselves. This is why I urge whoever is reading this to be like these people and make a difference. A girl should post a picture of her if she feels good about it, and not be ashamed of her body.

Sincerely,
An angered and hopeful teen