Thin, young, and beautiful, teenage girls all over the world see those as the three qualifications they must meet to be accepted by today’s society.  Teenage girls all around the world compare themselves to unrealistic images that they see in magazines.  Every image in a magazine has the ability to be photo shopped and perfected.

“Teenage girls take cues about how they should look from models they see in fashion magazines and on TV and it is something that they struggle to reconcile with when they look at themselves in the mirror,” said Kimberlee Salmond, senior researchers at the Girl Scout Research Institute.

The pressure to look perfect and be thin is something that most teenage girls struggle with on a daily basis.  The pressure to be thin is not only found in Hollywood it affects young girls in many places.  Constantly seeing images of unrealistically thin women does not help.

“Women who already have low opinions of their physical appearance are at an even greater risk for negative effects from media images,” said CBS news writer, Miranda Hitti.

Girls are not only affected by the media, but by everything that surrounds them in their everyday life.  Parents play a bigger part in the growth of their child then they realize.  Eating disorders and feeling the pressure to be thin can come from constantly being around  people who are unhappy with their own self image.

In a study done on teenage girls ages 12 to 18 they said,“Most teenage girls surveyed felt damaged by their mother’s dieting obsession and views on food and considered their mothers to be the biggest influence on their own self-image,” said Lin.

Advertisements put a large amount of pressure on the average person to be thin.

“ In a country where the average person sees 5,000 advertising images per day, it makes sense that these images would have an affect in our perceptions of what constitutes a normal and ideal body,” said Emma Gray writer for thatsfit.com.

Even without photo shopping there are drastic differences in the average every day person and someone seen in advertisements. The height and weight of the normal person does not match up to the requirements for a model.

“The average women is 5’4 and 140 pounds, while the average model is 5’11 and 117 pounds,” said Gray.

Photo shopping is just a small part of the problem.  Photoshopping pictures only gives people unrealistic ideas of what they should look like.   What it leads to is the truly scary part.  The effects of Anorexia and Bulimia are more hurtful to a person’s body then they realize.  Eating disorders can lead to infertility, heart problems, tooth loss, bloating, and medication overdose.

People can pick up eating disorders by trying to be perfect.  Being a perfectionist can be a scary path to take.

“Researchers say those who worry too much about what others think, specifically about disappointing others, tend to go to extreme efforts to reduce calories, like skipping meals and refusing food.  But this perfectionism also tends to lead to binge eating in private,” said Sarah Jio writer for Glamor.com.

Many people takes cues from the world on how they should look.  Lots of people get eating disorders because they are trying  to meet the standerds of the world.  People trying to meet the standards of the world  is just one reason people turn to eating disorders.

Anorexia is a very dangerous and scary disease to develop especially in young teenagers. Anorexia can damage many things inside the body.  The first place of effect is the bones, but the disease can also quickly move to the heart.  The disease of Anorexia nervosa is a multisystem disease.

Bulimia Nervosa is just as scary and dangerous as anorexia. It can damage many more parts of your body then one would think.  It can damage skin, stomach, muscles, throat, heart, brain, and that just names a few.

Self esteem is closely tied with body image.  Eating disorders are all associated with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders.

The case of eating disorders and pressure from the world is far from a lost cause. One of the many foundations that’s goal is to give people help with eating disorders is the Renfre Center.

The Renfrew center foundation is supported by private donations and funding from different people.  They are exclusivly dedicated to treating only eating disorders. The foundation is now operating in nine states and has ten different facilities.

The Renfrew center is one of many foundations that supports people with eating disorders.  Friends and family can help as well by watching eating and work out patterns and looking for small changes in their daily routines.  Eating disorders are no small problem, but their is a way that everyone can help.