The media is constantly bombarding us with images of celebrities who have slim, and sometimes very thin, bodies.

often appear in magazines and on television looking thin, and sometimes even verging on emaciated.

Celebrities are scrutinised when they put on a few pounds as well as when they lose them.

he top shows watched by female college students: Gossip Girl, Project Runway, and America’s Next Top Model. Likewise for magazines: Vogue, Seventeen, and Allure.

The media I’ve listed contribute to shaping what society considers beauty. The common denominators are tall, desperately skinny women who look fabulous. It should come as no surprise the media is to blame for today’s artificial standard of beauty.

The constant bombardment of skinny models and diet plans will certainly have an effect on women whose bodies are just not meant to be that small.

50% of girls between the ages of 13 and 15 believe they are overweight.

80% of 13 year old girls have dieted

40% of 9 year old girls dieted

he conference offered some hope that the fashion industry's disastrous obsession with the uber-thin and its cavalier disregard for the consequences of eating disorders may be coming to an end.

Anna Wintour admitted that models' attitudes towards food have long been hush-hush subjects for modeling agencies and designers, who prefer to shove the topic under the rug and continue subtly reminding the models to keep off the pounds.

5'10 model who's a size 4 is told she's too fat,

adolescent anorexics and their parents conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that 39% of the kids were visiting pro-ana forums.

The adolescents in Peebles' and Wilson's study who entered pro-ana websites tended to do so without their parents' knowledge and, compared with their peers who didn't visit the sites, to spend less time on homework, more time on the Internet and more time in the hospital. But the study did not find major differences in body weight, duration of eating disorders, number of missed periods or bone density between anorexics who visited the sites and those who didn't.

They found that women were less happy with their bodies and more likely to restrict their eating after seeing pictures of competitive women

because people in the west tend to gain weight as they get older, they have come to equate thinness with youth and attractiveness, and competitive advantages in general.

Media that show excessively thin women therefore send our competitive instincts into overdrive

the standard of female beauty often has been unrealistic and difficult to attain.

Women are told that they can and should "have it all."

Though it is highly unlikely for a rail-thin woman to have natural DD-cup size breasts, toy manufacturers set this expectation by developing and marketing the Barbie doll, whose measurements are physiologically impossible

Television, magazines and all forms of advertisement have left men and women obsessed with how they look and feel about themselves

Anorexics see themselves as obese no matter how much they weigh or how thin they look in the mirror.

This obsession or focus on constant monitoring of calories and weighing themselves helps them block out unwanted feelings and emotions. So it can be seen as a symptom of possible mental health problems, especially around self-esteem or what I prefer to refer to as self-acceptance.

We need to remind ourselves and each other constantly (especially children) that

With an increased population of children who spend a lot of time in front of television, there are more of them coming up with a superficial sense of who they are.

we are continually exposed to the notion that losing weight will make us happier and it will be through "THIS diet plan".

to encourage a healthy body image.

it's extremely unusual- rare even- for an actor, actress, or other star to be "over-weight"- or even of a normal weight.

The media influences teens' self-esteem and self-worth when it constantly bombards them with what society now considers ideal, and a distorted perception of what's "perfect." To stop the negative influence that the media has on children and teenagers, it's a good idea to limit exposure of body-image damaging programs, magazines and it's good