By Summer Ward

December 11, 2020

Teenagers are image obsessed, and this can be proven by the rise in eating disorders in teens. There is a higher chance of people getting an eating disorder from age 12-25 than any other age. 

This is because of how obsessed teenagers have become with body image. The beauty standard has taught teens that if you do not look a certain way then you are not valued, and tons of teens have begun to believe it.

I am a teenager in this time, and I have definitely seen it firsthand. If you are not confident enough in yourself, society will drill you until you hate yourself. I have seen it multiple times with my peers, and I believe it’s one of Gen Z’s biggest weaknesses. 

One of the biggest factors in why teens are so image obsessed is social media. Many teenagers spend countless hours staring at social media and trying to be just like all of the “perfect”  girls on it. 

One of the newest social media websites, TikTok, heavily promotes disordered eating behaviors with the “what I eat in a day” where girls barely eat. More than one third of Tik Toks users are under 14 years old. They can be negatively influenced by these types of videos and they can lead to bigger problems for them in the future.

 Instagram also really allows teenagers to be image obsessed. On Instagram people post their best posed pictures of themselves. This can pressure teens into thinking they are supposed to look like that, when in reality no one looks like that all the time. This kind of toxicity on social media drives teenagers to try and change everything about them just to get that perfect picture. 

People are trying to change the toxicity of social media though. Many girls, including Famous TikTok-er Sienna Mae Gomez, are trying to put a stop to all of the fakeness in social media. She posts herself at her best and worst so teens can see that not everyone looks perfect all the time. Hopefully, more stuff like this becomes more popular on social media so teens can stray away from being image obsessed.