With the start of a new year coming into full force my email, social medias, radio, and Spotify (just to name a few) have been FILLED with discounts on gym memberships, health food home deliveries, and “the greatest styles of sports bras available for 3 payments of $24.99.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong believer that health and fitness are extremely important, but I’m an even stronger believer that the way mainstream media approaches the idea of “new year new me” is completely absurd. Allow me to explain…………

Krystal, a fifteen year old girl from Manhattan, New York began the year with hopes of bettering herself. As she ran to make the subway after spending the previous hour perfecting a makeup tutorial she’d seen on YouTube, she was praying she wouldn’t be late for school. Thankfully, she made the train just in time to grab a seat so she’d be comfortable as she rode uptown. Normally, she would put her headphones in and listen to trending celebrity news, but a conversation across the train caught her attention. The two girls sitting across from her in their late teens were talking about how much they loved their new “water diet.” The past week they’ve been only been drinking water with one snack, while working out for 2 hours daily. They claimed the results are “fantastic, I have a bit of a headache but my stomach's flat so it doesn’t really matter.” Krystal thought to herself, “my winter formal is in two weeks, if I do this diet I’m pretty sure I can lose at least 10 pounds and hopefully look better in my dress! That’s it, i’ll do it, but I won’t tell anyone, i’ll just see if they notice my results.”

As the week went on Krystal drank tons of water, minimal food and worked out every day. Once Friday came and her dad came home for work he complimented her, “Krystal, you look great today!” She took this as someone commenting on her results and decided that she wouldn’t eat her snack that day. That weekend she drank water and increased her workouts to three hours a day. She came home all sweaty and her mother said, “Hey! Glad to see you’re working out it’s great for your health.” The more compliments she got, the harder Krystal pushed herself.

The day of the winter formal finally arrived, Krystal began to get ready but felt so sick and tired. After she showered she decided she would take a quick nap before she began to do her hair. She had overworked herself the past two weeks and needed a quick little refresher.

Krystal, woke up in a hospital room. It turns out that she passed out and her parents found her unconscious. When the doctor asked if she’s had an increased activity, she explained what she had been doing. Her mother began to cry. The moral of the story is, Krystal was influenced by those around her and wasn’t aware of the negative effects she was enduring. She thought that slimming down would make her happy but it landed her in a hospital room and she missed her formal.

Teens are UNAWARE of the negative mindset they have and continue to feed their brains with a false representation of reality. New Year, New Me should be a concept reminding teens that they are capable of being the best version of themselves, not someone else. New Year, New Me should be a time to set realistic goals that you’d like to achieve and it should be fun and enjoyable. New Year, New Me should be about encouragement that “no matter what life may throw at me this year I know I can handle it.”

I believe that New Year, New Me should be changed to New Year, Same Me or in some cases New Year, Better Me! You don’t need to change yourself. Life isn’t about the perfect body or the perfect grades. We tend to complicate life through our beliefs that overworking ourselves is admirable. To me, a teen who is educated yet can laugh at themselves, healthy yet enjoys dessert, strong yet knows it’s okay to cry, and content with the person that he or she strives to be is so much more admirable than a person that looks to be a cookie cutter image of what our society defines as “perfect.”

We work so hard to be perfect that we make ourselves sick and miserable. Just remember, you are the perfect you and the only you.