They say your teenage years of life are the hardest. When your a teen, you have so much to worry about. Grades, college, having the friends, looking pretty to get a date.
But that didn’t' really mean anything to me.
I personally don't think it should matter. You should be judged by what’s in your heart, not what’s in your coach purse.
My parents thought the same; it wasn't necessary. But to the world it is. If you’re not bedazzled to the nine's...your nothing. Like fashion says "One day you’re in, and the next day you’re out".
I guess you can say I was "in" in elementary school. But yet...I was different. My friends were plastered carbon-copy Barbies...with the Ugg boots, and wristlets. Nothing was ever good enough for them.
They would always talk fashion. They talked "trash Fashion"
"Oh my god, Chelsea, did you see those hemi-downs? Disgusting!!!"
And the worst matter of fact, is that they talked about each other when the backs were turned.
I knew they always talked about me.
I was like the Teresa in the Barbie group. I looked like them...but I never truly belonged.
I had friends outside of the popular click. I had great friends, in fact....
Her name was Niki. She was so sweet to me. She never complained about the fact that i never owned a northface jacket...she was like me. And we were never materials girls, but we were living in the material world.
I think the final straw was with Niki.
I was at a party with all of them, and we were hanging out...as friends do! But the minute she turned away, they're smiles formed to sneers and they jeered at her shoes!
"Oh my god, did you see those hideous sneakers? Who wears those? She should get herself a pair of Uggs, if she wants to look less pathetic".
I just couldn't take that anymore. The back-talking and the hurting of friends...So I had called up my mom and told her that i needed to get away.
You see, the beauty in that phone call was the power i had to do something right. I didn't need to stand there and take any of their gossip. I had a choice to join in, or actually do something right....
it feels good to take the path most over-see. The correct one.
As humans we all want to fit in.
The world is like a puzzle. You eventually fid the pieces that you click with...But you also try things that don't really work out. Together, united we make a picture.
My puzzle? My puzzle is a picture of a pretty girl. Pretty isn't in the clothes, it's in the heart.
Pretty people are made out of ugly experiences. And the true beauty in them is the strength they had to overcome the ugliness of life and keeping going.
I’ve Brocken through to the other side. I'm in the pretty. I'm confident. I'm happy...You should be to. With yourself...with the world, with everyone!!! And you should never change that for any Barbie. No one.
I am a Pretty Person.
Someday.
Everyday.
Chelsea Dyer 15 years old September 26, 2011.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Pretty People: David (Obesity)
I never really understood it...Why most people don't like themselves. In a way, I guess..I never really understood myself.
I grew up as this shy little thing...I never socialized. It was just always me and the Twinkies.
You know, sometimes I try and look back and laugh at it. Honestly. But it's hard sometimes.
I think it was the fourth grade when it had all started...
Everyone always says "Don't forget the little people in life"..But what about us Big guys?
I was 180lbs when I entered fourth grade. Everyone with their Barbie pack-backs and they're power ranger lunch boxes... Laughing with tiny little giggles...
But then there was me. This big..thing. Built like a bear; like the biggest loser "before".
I was always picked on for that. Because I was like a sumo wrestler...Or so I was told back then.
They wouldn't even let me play baseball with them. Its something i will never forget...walking out to that green baseball field and having all of these stick boys turn me down. i wasn't good enough for them....I wasn't good enough for anyone...
By the end of elementary years, I had reached 243 lbs..and the biggest I was ever in my life, was 260lbs!
I wasn't even on the Body Mass Scale...
I had this realization at the end of my middle school years...epiphany about me.
I had been sitting in the shadows of my weight...If I want something to happen, I have to do it. No one else. Its up to ME.
So the first thing I did was stop eating "bad foods". Cut off all fatty foods, and no soda. Except diet on rare occasions. Start filling up on fruits, veggies and liquids. When you drink lots of water, your body thinks its full. (good tip!)
I also started walking NON-STOP. The tip is to get a pedometer and make sure you walk 5000+ steps a day.
So today? I weigh 163lbs. And NO ONE makes fun of me. If anything? My past has made me stronger.
No ones perfect. Don't strive for it. Strive for being happy with yourself. You will never reach perfect if you don't feel good already.
Stand up for yourself! We are the only ones who can change the future!
Pretty people are made out of ugly experiences. And the true beauty in them, is the strength they had to overcome the ugliness of life and keeping going.
I’ve Brocken through to the other side. I'm in the pretty. I'm confident. I'm happy...You should be to. With yourself..with the world, with everyone!!!
I am a Pretty Person.
Someday.
Everyday.
David Ruiz, 15 years old September 22, 2011.
Before:
AFTER:
I grew up as this shy little thing...I never socialized. It was just always me and the Twinkies.
You know, sometimes I try and look back and laugh at it. Honestly. But it's hard sometimes.
I think it was the fourth grade when it had all started...
Everyone always says "Don't forget the little people in life"..But what about us Big guys?
I was 180lbs when I entered fourth grade. Everyone with their Barbie pack-backs and they're power ranger lunch boxes... Laughing with tiny little giggles...
But then there was me. This big..thing. Built like a bear; like the biggest loser "before".
I was always picked on for that. Because I was like a sumo wrestler...Or so I was told back then.
They wouldn't even let me play baseball with them. Its something i will never forget...walking out to that green baseball field and having all of these stick boys turn me down. i wasn't good enough for them....I wasn't good enough for anyone...
By the end of elementary years, I had reached 243 lbs..and the biggest I was ever in my life, was 260lbs!
I wasn't even on the Body Mass Scale...
I had this realization at the end of my middle school years...epiphany about me.
I had been sitting in the shadows of my weight...If I want something to happen, I have to do it. No one else. Its up to ME.
So the first thing I did was stop eating "bad foods". Cut off all fatty foods, and no soda. Except diet on rare occasions. Start filling up on fruits, veggies and liquids. When you drink lots of water, your body thinks its full. (good tip!)
I also started walking NON-STOP. The tip is to get a pedometer and make sure you walk 5000+ steps a day.
So today? I weigh 163lbs. And NO ONE makes fun of me. If anything? My past has made me stronger.
No ones perfect. Don't strive for it. Strive for being happy with yourself. You will never reach perfect if you don't feel good already.
Stand up for yourself! We are the only ones who can change the future!
Pretty people are made out of ugly experiences. And the true beauty in them, is the strength they had to overcome the ugliness of life and keeping going.
I’ve Brocken through to the other side. I'm in the pretty. I'm confident. I'm happy...You should be to. With yourself..with the world, with everyone!!!
I am a Pretty Person.
Someday.
Everyday.
David Ruiz, 15 years old September 22, 2011.
Before:
AFTER:
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Fun House World
Body Dimorphic.
Body Dimorphic is the disease that makes you feel like you’re living in a fun house of horrors. Every Mirror is a fun house mirror. You’re always too fat. Too short. Your nose is bigger than it should be.
About 1-2% of the general population is affected by body dimorphic disorder. This estimate, however, is inaccurate due to a number of unreported cases...because the problem with Body Dimorphic, is that most people do not know they have it. Or in even worse case, they refuse to except reality of diagnosis.
The most prominent cases of Body Dimorphic have been with the age group of 10-30.
Body Dimorphic is a gate-way disorder to anorexia and or bulimia and many other disorders that usually lead to a beauty related early death.
That is why I would like to introduce you to:
RACHEAL BAUGHAN, 27, from Crawley in Sussex, is an entrepreneur who runs her own modeling agency. She has written a book, The Butterfly Girl, about her body-image problems.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/beauty/article-1195336/Body-dysmorphic-disorder-Four-beautiful-women-distorted-way-THEY-themselves.html#ixzz1YX1rgkWG
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/beauty/article-1195336/Body-dysmorphic-disorder-Four-beautiful-women-distorted-way-THEY-themselves.html
http://www.pamguide.com.au/anxiety/bdd_test.php
http://www.thebutterflygirlrachealbaughan.co.uk/
Body Dimorphic is the disease that makes you feel like you’re living in a fun house of horrors. Every Mirror is a fun house mirror. You’re always too fat. Too short. Your nose is bigger than it should be.
About 1-2% of the general population is affected by body dimorphic disorder. This estimate, however, is inaccurate due to a number of unreported cases...because the problem with Body Dimorphic, is that most people do not know they have it. Or in even worse case, they refuse to except reality of diagnosis.
The most prominent cases of Body Dimorphic have been with the age group of 10-30.
Body Dimorphic is a gate-way disorder to anorexia and or bulimia and many other disorders that usually lead to a beauty related early death.
That is why I would like to introduce you to:
RACHEAL BAUGHAN, 27, from Crawley in Sussex, is an entrepreneur who runs her own modeling agency. She has written a book, The Butterfly Girl, about her body-image problems.
Rachel was Diagnosed with Body Dimorphic Disorder (BDD) in 1998. Since then, she has seeked treatment and written a book that I would HIGHLEY suggest to many people. Her words and her journey is inspirational to girls like me in this fun house world.
Hayley Michelle: un-officially diagnosed with BDD in the winter of 2010. Seeking personal treatment now. And is now focusing on educating others about this growing dilemma in the teen reality of beauty obsessions and disorders.
Please, spread the word about this and educate yourself. Test yourself to see if you suffer from this disorder alike many people in the world. Below are links to all articles mentioned, and an on-line test for BDD. Please take, share results if you want and please get help. I am here for you....all of you who are reading. One pretty person to another. <3
Hayley Michelle
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/beauty/article-1195336/Body-dysmorphic-disorder-Four-beautiful-women-distorted-way-THEY-themselves.html
http://www.pamguide.com.au/anxiety/bdd_test.php
http://www.thebutterflygirlrachealbaughan.co.uk/
Pretty Pictures: Disturbing but true pictures
Please support these artists!
Hayley Michelle
http://scaryjesus.deviantart.com/
http://angelikakrinke.deviantart.com/
http://ascenttomadness.deviantart.com
/http://rowen-silver.deviantart.com/
Monday, September 19, 2011
Pretty People: Hayley (Trichatillamania)
I have always written down about my life...but I never thought I would ever get the chance to do something life changing through writing.
I don't even know where to start...I guess it all started when I was in first grade.
I think that's really when our real lives begin. When we start to develop our own personalities, aside from what our parents had wanted us to be.
We inherit traits from our family. We pick up certain habits from them, we embody our parents in a strange way... at least I did.
From the very beginning I was the spitting image of my mother. I still am today. When we go walking around people comment on how we look like twins!
But I never got anything else from my mother besides my outside features...I got everything else I have from my dad's side.
My weird and extremely loud way of talking... my drive and ambition to go up and beyond what's expected...and the tendency to go a little insane at times.
I really used to be like my Grandmother though...My grandma is the loudest person I know and she is never afraid to say what's on her mind.
She came her from France at the end of World War II. She was European model.
She still walks around as if she is! She used to teach me how to put on makeup, and walk in heels. By the time I was four all I wanted was a prom dress and a man to drape over my arm as my favorite accessory.
But there was also another quality I had taken from my Grandma. My grandma had a beauty obsession. She would refuse to eat in front of anyone, and would always comment on my looks. She would tell me that I need more cover-up to cover up my facial features that were not "beautiful" to the eye.
I have never questioned her because some part of me knew that she was right deep down inside.
My grandma and my mom were popular in school.
I guess I was up until first grade when everything began to change. I would only wear the prettiest dresses, and I would only have play-dates with the select few. So, in a way I was popular.
I had skipped kindergarten because I was smarter than everyone else in my class. My problem was, that I had no problem expressing the fact that I was! I guess you can say that's when things began to go down hill...but I can still argue with some other dark moments in my life.
another thing that I was before 1st grade, was the cutest little girl you'd ever seen.
I have tapes of me when I was little, giving an Oscar speech, and talking about why I think everyone should be like me and be afraid of nothing.
But then there came the day I became afraid of everything.
By the age of 6 I was diagnosed with Trichatillamania.
Trichatillamania is a brain disease that makes your hair fall out.
That’s always what I told everyone so they wouldn't make too much fun of me. But really its a fancy term for saying your hair falls out so you begin to pull it out of your body because of unnatural desires of beauty and pain.
Luckily, for me it was only my eyelashes. I know people...or well, I have read and seen pictures of people...that had pulled out all the hair in their scalp, eyes, and eyebrows.
I used to have the longest lashes. Everyone use to tell me that I was the girl with the pretty brown eyes. That I would bat an eye and houses in Thai-land would blow away....
But then I lost that. After everyone began to know about it, I began to lose not only friends, but self-confidence. I became very....externally internal.
I would spend most of my days sitting under a tree singing to myself all alone, because no one wanted to play with me..a freak. A Trichatillamaniac. They used to say the meanest things about me...
I remember one day when I was at SACC (an after school program that no longer exists because the board of education loves to suck the life out of everything, RIP SACC)...I remember that my friends and I were playing on the sea-saw outside.
I did have a few select friends...but they had all grown up and changed into people that used my secrets as weapons on me... its always the one's you think you'll love forever...
But that is a memory for a different time.
We were playing on the sea-saws...or better to say..they were playing on the sea-saws. One of the girls who I used to call a "friend" Had told me I couldn’t because I was too big, and the sea-saw couldn't hold my weight. And then one of her friends said that I was still lighter than before...you know "without the eyelashes".
I just remember crying that day. Most of my memories of school are about me crying...Isn't that sad? To have most of your childhood memories be about crying?
I guess it could have been worse, you know? But it was pretty bad, looking back at it all.
Pretty people are made out of ugly experiences. And the true beauty in them, is the strength they had to over come the ugliness of life and keeping going.
I’m still trying to break through to the other side. I'm still stuck in the ugly...fighting my way to get out.
But I will become a pretty person one day.
Someday.
But not today.
Hayley Michelle, 14 years old. September 19, 2011.
I don't even know where to start...I guess it all started when I was in first grade.
I think that's really when our real lives begin. When we start to develop our own personalities, aside from what our parents had wanted us to be.
We inherit traits from our family. We pick up certain habits from them, we embody our parents in a strange way... at least I did.
From the very beginning I was the spitting image of my mother. I still am today. When we go walking around people comment on how we look like twins!
But I never got anything else from my mother besides my outside features...I got everything else I have from my dad's side.
My weird and extremely loud way of talking... my drive and ambition to go up and beyond what's expected...and the tendency to go a little insane at times.
I really used to be like my Grandmother though...My grandma is the loudest person I know and she is never afraid to say what's on her mind.
She came her from France at the end of World War II. She was European model.
She still walks around as if she is! She used to teach me how to put on makeup, and walk in heels. By the time I was four all I wanted was a prom dress and a man to drape over my arm as my favorite accessory.
But there was also another quality I had taken from my Grandma. My grandma had a beauty obsession. She would refuse to eat in front of anyone, and would always comment on my looks. She would tell me that I need more cover-up to cover up my facial features that were not "beautiful" to the eye.
I have never questioned her because some part of me knew that she was right deep down inside.
My grandma and my mom were popular in school.
I guess I was up until first grade when everything began to change. I would only wear the prettiest dresses, and I would only have play-dates with the select few. So, in a way I was popular.
I had skipped kindergarten because I was smarter than everyone else in my class. My problem was, that I had no problem expressing the fact that I was! I guess you can say that's when things began to go down hill...but I can still argue with some other dark moments in my life.
another thing that I was before 1st grade, was the cutest little girl you'd ever seen.
I have tapes of me when I was little, giving an Oscar speech, and talking about why I think everyone should be like me and be afraid of nothing.
But then there came the day I became afraid of everything.
By the age of 6 I was diagnosed with Trichatillamania.
Trichatillamania is a brain disease that makes your hair fall out.
That’s always what I told everyone so they wouldn't make too much fun of me. But really its a fancy term for saying your hair falls out so you begin to pull it out of your body because of unnatural desires of beauty and pain.
Luckily, for me it was only my eyelashes. I know people...or well, I have read and seen pictures of people...that had pulled out all the hair in their scalp, eyes, and eyebrows.
I used to have the longest lashes. Everyone use to tell me that I was the girl with the pretty brown eyes. That I would bat an eye and houses in Thai-land would blow away....
But then I lost that. After everyone began to know about it, I began to lose not only friends, but self-confidence. I became very....externally internal.
I would spend most of my days sitting under a tree singing to myself all alone, because no one wanted to play with me..a freak. A Trichatillamaniac. They used to say the meanest things about me...
I remember one day when I was at SACC (an after school program that no longer exists because the board of education loves to suck the life out of everything, RIP SACC)...I remember that my friends and I were playing on the sea-saw outside.
I did have a few select friends...but they had all grown up and changed into people that used my secrets as weapons on me... its always the one's you think you'll love forever...
But that is a memory for a different time.
We were playing on the sea-saws...or better to say..they were playing on the sea-saws. One of the girls who I used to call a "friend" Had told me I couldn’t because I was too big, and the sea-saw couldn't hold my weight. And then one of her friends said that I was still lighter than before...you know "without the eyelashes".
I just remember crying that day. Most of my memories of school are about me crying...Isn't that sad? To have most of your childhood memories be about crying?
I guess it could have been worse, you know? But it was pretty bad, looking back at it all.
Pretty people are made out of ugly experiences. And the true beauty in them, is the strength they had to over come the ugliness of life and keeping going.
I’m still trying to break through to the other side. I'm still stuck in the ugly...fighting my way to get out.
But I will become a pretty person one day.
Someday.
But not today.
Hayley Michelle, 14 years old. September 19, 2011.
Smart Art
Hello, pretty people!
So I just wanted to post this to sorta "SUM" up what this blog is about. Because to be honest, I'm a little confused myself!
So I ultimately know that I want this blog to be about using art to carry across a message. My personal message to the world is about Beauty obsessions and the teen world today; about how we are targeted and easily subjective to bullying mainly because of the differences that do make us beautiful.
So Once a week I will do, sort of an "article" format to discuss what i find interesting to me or disturbing. It is something that I think people should hear about, something we should support or fight!
Also, every day I’m going to do a "Pretty People" series.
The "Pretty People" series will be about REAL people, and REAL events on how they were put into situations like many un-fortunate teens today, or how they are put into these positions. About how they overcame it, or how they are fighting to not only change their life but change others.
Starting off with me.
I am a girl who has, and still is, fighting the ugly people in life.
I am in no position to call anyone ugly...but I truly believe to the bottom of my soul that if you have to hurt and put others down to make you feel beautiful, then you are ugly from the skin to your core.
I have always wanted to tell my story. From the eyes of the blank canvas that no one wanted to paint on...
And I am going to tell my story. I am also going to search for others. Others alike me... and I cannot wait to tell their stories.
There is always a story waiting to be told.
There is also many kinds of art, but my art I want to create is Smart Art.
I want to create art that will educate, and provoke people. I want to create art that will help people...and perhaps condemn some people. I want people to see if they’re the victim, or if they're the ones hurting. And I want to help people change that. None of us need to take it. We don't need to take anything!
We only need to take our humanity.
Hayley Michelle
So I just wanted to post this to sorta "SUM" up what this blog is about. Because to be honest, I'm a little confused myself!
So I ultimately know that I want this blog to be about using art to carry across a message. My personal message to the world is about Beauty obsessions and the teen world today; about how we are targeted and easily subjective to bullying mainly because of the differences that do make us beautiful.
So Once a week I will do, sort of an "article" format to discuss what i find interesting to me or disturbing. It is something that I think people should hear about, something we should support or fight!
Also, every day I’m going to do a "Pretty People" series.
The "Pretty People" series will be about REAL people, and REAL events on how they were put into situations like many un-fortunate teens today, or how they are put into these positions. About how they overcame it, or how they are fighting to not only change their life but change others.
Starting off with me.
I am a girl who has, and still is, fighting the ugly people in life.
I am in no position to call anyone ugly...but I truly believe to the bottom of my soul that if you have to hurt and put others down to make you feel beautiful, then you are ugly from the skin to your core.
I have always wanted to tell my story. From the eyes of the blank canvas that no one wanted to paint on...
And I am going to tell my story. I am also going to search for others. Others alike me... and I cannot wait to tell their stories.
There is always a story waiting to be told.
There is also many kinds of art, but my art I want to create is Smart Art.
I want to create art that will educate, and provoke people. I want to create art that will help people...and perhaps condemn some people. I want people to see if they’re the victim, or if they're the ones hurting. And I want to help people change that. None of us need to take it. We don't need to take anything!
We only need to take our humanity.
Hayley Michelle
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The beauty of Self confidence
Hello. My name is Hayley Michelle, and this is The Pretty Project. The Pretty project was created to educate people about what i see as a personal problem with the world today; the beauty obsessions and that teenage girls do not feel comfortable in their own bodies: How they crave to be something classified as "Beautiful". But what really is beautiful?
Beautiful- having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind. Excellent of its kind. Wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.
It has become more common that girl between 12-25 make up most of the population of people who have eating discords. The numbers show up to 95%,a s in an account last year. Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among teens today! The even scarier statistics, is that over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.
All for the price of "being beautiful”.
But beauty is not that tooth-pick, blonde on the cover of the magazine! Do you know that 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures?! And 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner (*Collins, 1991).
And 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat (*Mellin et al., 1991). That is 81% of the ten year old population. When your ten...you should be afraid of spiders. Not a fear of becoming fat.
Beauty has become more and more of a poison to teenage girls, rather than a friend.
But what I think the public does not understand about beauty, is the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Last time I had checked...I had not appointed anyone to be the judge of perception. People are constantly being blinded everyday by being told they are not beautiful. Chances are that the person, who had told you that, is not beautiful themselves.If you cannot see the beauty in yourself, then you can see the beauty in no-one.
But people in today's society do not understand that! They don't see the need to look for beauty in themselves; rather they see the need to change the things that they find un-beautiful!
The fact that nearly most female American’s have an interest or have already had breast implants, Botox, liposuction and many more beauty procedures that go under the knife is sad and rising number. Cosmetic surgery skyrocketed 299% from 1997 to 2003, and is still increasing in the number of women who feel as if they're real bodies are not pretty enough for the world, so they have to replace reality with plastic.
But for many today, it is becoming what I would call an "epidemic".
The fact that more teenage girls are developing beauty obsessions every day is a terrible thing that is happening to the world. And it should be our job, as human beings, to create a safe environment for these future generations to find comfort and satisfaction in the reflection in the mirror!
"The borderline between a usual desire to be beautiful and an unhealthy obsession can be rather thin. You think you’ll be happier having new breasts. But then you get a good idea to get rid of the small folds on your hips and also of the bags below eyes. It’s the same as other things in life – we set our hearts on certain dreams: when I’m done studying, I’ll meet my Prince Charming; when my house is built, when the kids are older and I go back to work, when it’s spring, summer...Is it possible to achieve happiness, considering the body does age? " - article about beauty obsession.
The rate of girls that are longing to be everything but themselves is sad. I should know, because I was..I am one of those girls. But I am one of those girl who doesn't want to be Barbie anymore. I want to be a real girl. I girl who is happy with her life, and with herself. I don't want to long for beauty anymore. I want to long for a better life. For me, my friends...the whole world. All it takes is one girl at a time to stand up for what they believe in.
This is what The Pretty Project is about. Standing up for the girl in the mirror who doesn't like what she sees. I take it personally upon myself to do everything I can to try and change that. By then end of 2013, I want to see those numbers downsized drastically. I want to see a smile when I look in the mirror.
I want everyone to see a smile when they look in the mirror.
The price of beauty is high. Most of the time, I think it is not worth the pain we put ourselves through... Why should we suffer for fake beauty, when all we have to do is look deep down in ourselves and find what we like! All we have to really do is love ourselves, and one another.
"All you need is love"
Thank you for reading,
Hayley Michelle
(Information on today's sources is linked below. Please read and inform yourself about what's going on and make a difference. Every little bit counts. Tell a strange their beautiful, or you r niece. Tell everyone. And you can see that you have just influence a life in a positive manner. <3 thank you<3)
http://www.laderma.com/obsession-with-beauty-2.asp
http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/
http://www.webmd.com/healthy-beauty/news/20050228/how-many-young-women-get-plastic-surgery
Collins, M.E. (1991). Body figure perceptions and preferences among pre-adolescent children. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 199-208.
Mellin, L., McNutt, S., Hu, Y., Schreiber, G.B., Crawford, P., & Obarzanek, E. (1991). A longitudinal study of the dietary practices of black and white girls 9 and 10 years old at enrollment: The NHLBI growth and health study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23-37.
Beautiful- having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind. Excellent of its kind. Wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.
It has become more common that girl between 12-25 make up most of the population of people who have eating discords. The numbers show up to 95%,a s in an account last year. Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among teens today! The even scarier statistics, is that over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.
All for the price of "being beautiful”.
But beauty is not that tooth-pick, blonde on the cover of the magazine! Do you know that 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures?! And 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner (*Collins, 1991).
And 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat (*Mellin et al., 1991). That is 81% of the ten year old population. When your ten...you should be afraid of spiders. Not a fear of becoming fat.
Beauty has become more and more of a poison to teenage girls, rather than a friend.
But what I think the public does not understand about beauty, is the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Last time I had checked...I had not appointed anyone to be the judge of perception. People are constantly being blinded everyday by being told they are not beautiful. Chances are that the person, who had told you that, is not beautiful themselves.If you cannot see the beauty in yourself, then you can see the beauty in no-one.
But people in today's society do not understand that! They don't see the need to look for beauty in themselves; rather they see the need to change the things that they find un-beautiful!
The fact that nearly most female American’s have an interest or have already had breast implants, Botox, liposuction and many more beauty procedures that go under the knife is sad and rising number. Cosmetic surgery skyrocketed 299% from 1997 to 2003, and is still increasing in the number of women who feel as if they're real bodies are not pretty enough for the world, so they have to replace reality with plastic.
But for many today, it is becoming what I would call an "epidemic".
The fact that more teenage girls are developing beauty obsessions every day is a terrible thing that is happening to the world. And it should be our job, as human beings, to create a safe environment for these future generations to find comfort and satisfaction in the reflection in the mirror!
"The borderline between a usual desire to be beautiful and an unhealthy obsession can be rather thin. You think you’ll be happier having new breasts. But then you get a good idea to get rid of the small folds on your hips and also of the bags below eyes. It’s the same as other things in life – we set our hearts on certain dreams: when I’m done studying, I’ll meet my Prince Charming; when my house is built, when the kids are older and I go back to work, when it’s spring, summer...Is it possible to achieve happiness, considering the body does age? " - article about beauty obsession.
The rate of girls that are longing to be everything but themselves is sad. I should know, because I was..I am one of those girls. But I am one of those girl who doesn't want to be Barbie anymore. I want to be a real girl. I girl who is happy with her life, and with herself. I don't want to long for beauty anymore. I want to long for a better life. For me, my friends...the whole world. All it takes is one girl at a time to stand up for what they believe in.
This is what The Pretty Project is about. Standing up for the girl in the mirror who doesn't like what she sees. I take it personally upon myself to do everything I can to try and change that. By then end of 2013, I want to see those numbers downsized drastically. I want to see a smile when I look in the mirror.
I want everyone to see a smile when they look in the mirror.
The price of beauty is high. Most of the time, I think it is not worth the pain we put ourselves through... Why should we suffer for fake beauty, when all we have to do is look deep down in ourselves and find what we like! All we have to really do is love ourselves, and one another.
"All you need is love"
Thank you for reading,
Hayley Michelle
(Information on today's sources is linked below. Please read and inform yourself about what's going on and make a difference. Every little bit counts. Tell a strange their beautiful, or you r niece. Tell everyone. And you can see that you have just influence a life in a positive manner. <3 thank you<3)
http://www.laderma.com/obsession-with-beauty-2.asp
http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/
http://www.webmd.com/healthy-beauty/news/20050228/how-many-young-women-get-plastic-surgery
Collins, M.E. (1991). Body figure perceptions and preferences among pre-adolescent children. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 199-208.
Mellin, L., McNutt, S., Hu, Y., Schreiber, G.B., Crawford, P., & Obarzanek, E. (1991). A longitudinal study of the dietary practices of black and white girls 9 and 10 years old at enrollment: The NHLBI growth and health study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 23-37.
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