To sit on the numbing bathroom floor and wait for the extremes from the pills she has just taken; to wait for her self-image to grow through the sickening  feeling of throwing up, after a day of nothing but, measurement tapes around her waist, has become the new shrouded normal  to many. The core ground for this drawback is the rocketing development along the attachment of beauty standards and social media. 

Moreover, the status quo cleaves to an occupied schedule for everybody, which in return doesn’t spare enough time, to recognize the challenges teenagers’ physical and mental fitness are facing due to this dilemma...
 

SOCIAL MEDIA ENHANCING TOXIC BEAUTY EXCELLENCE

Technology and its heightened sense of achievement is nothing of the state of the art to us, but it has a flip side when considering the rising toxicity in beauty standards. While teenagers are captivated with the posts and daily updates of celebrities or the more privileged, they fail to remember that most of their pictures are photo shopped and objectify and sexualize the definition of ‘beauty’.
Girls are expected to be toned. Slim; stick thin, acne free, scar-less figures with plump lips and the perfect nose, even though this requires extreme levels of exercise, diets and cosmetic procedures. Men as well, are sexualized by the ideology that a less muscular man is somehow less of a man as a whole

THE DETRIMENTAL EFFICACY ON TEENAGERS’ FITNESS

The circulation in hand has broadened its horizons when considering the adverse effects that come into hand by it. Many teenagers undergo eating disorders, body dysmorphia, appearance dissatisfaction, substance use disorders and even start and continue to smoke or take in stimulants to decrease body fat. This has augmented to anxiety disorders including social anxiety, GAD and weight stigma which holds a risk factor of severe depression causing a constant feeling of not feeling good enough and self-hate for one’s self. The outcome of this stumbling block is therefore not just captured within one’s physique but also affects the mental fitness of a person.

Research from the past few months suggest, that the only way out of this crisis is to spread awareness and build body positivity within yourself after grounding yourself in the right ideologies. As Gen Z, we should all strive for a better future with more understanding and care for ourselves and our unique process of growing up.
 

 -Taleetha Wambeck-

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