Imagine going on a girls shopping trip excited to find the most beautiful and amazing prom dress that you could ever imagine. Full of excitement because you can finally see yourself in the designer dress you’ve been picturing yourself in since the announcement of this event. Now, say you find the dress that makes you feel so confident and limitless but the boutique owner feels justified to tell you that you’re too fat to be wearing that style dress. Immediately you are hit with shock, shame, and embarrassment because of the cruel and destroying words from this woman. Now, stop imaging and realize that many teenage girls across the country and the world deal with this reality every single day. Body shaming is not just something that many women face for not being curvy enough, having a too big stomach, or being too small for the preference of the media but it also a thing that young girls as early as the age as seven encounter daily.
Recently a young girl and her mother were shopping in Dillard’s having an amazing time trying on dresses for an event that the daughter would attend. When the mother and daughter decided to have a little bit of fun and try on a dress that she would normally not think to wear, a department store worker made comments concerning the need for a girdle and other rude comments to the family. As a young teenager in a stage of major development for self-confidence, I could only imagine the replay of words in her mind along with the others that she may receive during her time at school.
The desire to experience the maximum force of feeling beautiful at least one time in your life has no age limit. Many girls, particularly between the age of eleven and twenty, struggle with making this desire a reality while having to constantly be reminded of what seems like the majority of the world negatively thinks of her body. According to a study published in Journal of Early Adolescence, nearly all overweight teen girls have been bullied because of their physical appearance. Of those surveyed 70 percent admitted to starving themselves to change their body image and 100 percent confessed that they hated their bodies and wished they were thinner.
The thought of altering themselves as a solution to be accepted by those who shame them is not a healthy mental solution to this problem. If a child does not learn how to love their self at the condition that they are in now, the need for acceptance and approval from others will always be a goal no matter the weight and body structure of these girls. It has been found that this can also affect how they view relationships and could also be a negative impact in their career as an adult. Constantly being reminded that many do not approve of their body is influencing them to hate what they see and to be disgusted, and disappointed, at the image that reflects when they look into a mirror. Receiving hate for their outward appearance also influences their opinions of their individuality, feeling inferior, and placing limits on what they can attempt to achieve or dream of becoming in their future.
Early life development prior to womanhood is very important for the development of a confident and ambitious woman. If that development is suffering because of damage from social interactions because of the body shape and size of a young girl, it limits their unlocked potential and goals. Body shaming causes young girls to miss the true beauty that they are and devalue who they are. Suggesting that one should put some meat on their bones or lose those pounds could be the very comment that breaks their esteem that is needed to navigate throughout life. It’s one thing to be concerned about the health of these young ladies but it’s another to belittle and destroy the beautiful girl that they really are.
