英语论文网

eady spend $40+ million a month on beauty products according to NPD Group. Teenagers spend about $100 million.' (Unnaturally Beautiful Children, 2009). Adolescence should be a time of exploration, not a time when adolescent girls should be preoccupied/obsessed with their weight and/or appearance.

'In fact, a study of mass media magazines discovered that women's magazines had 10.5 times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men's magazines did. By failing to present a diverse range of body types, fashion magazines promote thinness as both the desired, and more insidiously, the prevailing norm for women.' (Mayo Clinic, 2010). Advertisers have very specialized market- girls. The prefrontal cortex in those adolescent girls is still improving in development, thus their reasoning, decision-making, and self-control have not fully emerged. These adolescents do not understand that one's physical appearance is determined by genetics. They also do not understand that most of the images they see are computer enhanced, air brushed, etc. An unfortunate consequence of this is that '81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat.' (Mellin et al, 1991).

With disturbing statistics like these, it is easy to see how the mass media has influenced an adolescent girl. These young girls do not realize the dangers that these 'idols' have placed themselves in, just to have the appearance of beauty. They do not understand the end result of having an eating disorder. It can not only lead to missed menstrual cycles and emotional distress, but death. 'Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.' 'about 9 out of 10 people with anorexia are female.' (Anorexia Nervosa, 2009). In extreme cases, girls begin to shows signs of wanting to lose weight around the age of five, but statistics show that '95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.' (Anorexia Nervosa, 2009). These are just a few of the statistics that shows how the media influences adolescent girls.

The Internet is also a very powerful tool in influencing adolescent girls through the power of advertising. The Internet has numerous sites that promoted eating disorders. It is easy for an adolescent girl to visit sites like Pro-Anna, Pro-Mia, Starving for Perfection, and Thin Commandments. Adolescent's girls can easily find these sites on the Internet and visit them often. Parents are quick to block what they consider a 'dangerous' site (i.e. porn), but do not even think about blocking these sites. On these websites girls can find a range of topics thru the gamut of photos of extremely thin models (with which they promotes as 'true beauty') to information on how to become anorexia or bulimic. 'Previous studies have shown the adolescents exposed to such pro-eating disorder websites have higher levels of body dissatisfaction compared to adolescents that have not been exposed. In addition, young people who have visited these sites are also known to engage in more intense eating disordered behaviors.' (Study Examines Pro-Anorexia, 2010). These finding clearly promote the climbing influence these websites can have on an adolescent girl. Just the fact that these websites are available show that body image is extremely important to an adolescent girl.

Girls are continuously pressured to look better. The mass measured bombards ad本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。