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Kaylee Meier
Ms. Gardner
Honors English 10, 0
8 May 2014
The Massive Media Impact: Anorexia in Teenage Girls
A survey from People magazine showed that eighty percent of female participants felt
that women in television shows and movies caused them to feel insecure when concerning their
bodies (qtd. in Media Influence). This insecurity regarding ones weight results in actions
being taken in order to appear more similar to the body image typically seen on film or in
magazines actions that could result in life-threatening eating disorders like anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder based on ones denial in sustaining a healthy body weight.
Those who are diagnosed with anorexia have an obsessive fear of gaining weight, leading them
to excessively dieting or exercising as a result of a mentally contorted body image (Staff).
Although anorexia mainly impacts teenagers, researchers are noticing that approximately fifty
percent of all fourth grade girls are dieting or concerned about their weight (Media Influence),
beginning the controversy of body image as a child and gradually increasing with age. Modern
societys constant encouragement of a thin body as the ideal female shape catalyzes eating
disorders like anorexia nervosa in adolescents through the influence of modeling, television, and
pro-anorexia websites.
Many can argue that social medias influence is not the only contributing factor to
anorexia, rather, there is scientifically-proven, structural brain differences between a person with
anorexia and a person without the eating disorder. According to Walter Kaye, director of the
eating disorders program at the University of California, San Diego,The mishmash of different

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brain imaging data is just beginning to highlight the neural roots of anorexia, Kaye
acknowledges, but because starvation physically changes the brain, researchers can run into
trouble teasing out whether glitchy brain wiring causes anorexia, or vice versa (qtd. in Rosen).
In addition, it is arguable that the creators of magazine ads are trying to disassociate themselves
from the anorexic-looking model. There is a law, initiated by Kadima MK Rachel Adatto, a
consultant to the Minister of Health and a chairwoman of the National Womens Health
Association, banning the use of Photoshop or other digitally altering programs that are used to
emphasize a thin frame in advertisements. Furthermore, this law denies the ability for anorexic
models to pose for advertisements (qtd. in Siegel). To summarize, it has been scientifically
proven that those with anorexia cannot control their anorexic brain because it was developed at
a young age and cannot be manipulated in adolescence, when most cases of anorexia occur
(Rosen). It has been proven that anorexia cannot be controlled because it regards overall brain
development. However, that development begins at a young age - an age with easy access to
technology and media influence on the Internet. Consequently, the brain is developed to be
concerned with weight and overall appearance.
Admittedly, scientific evidence cannot be manipulated and it has been proven that an
anorexics brain is structurally different from that of a person without anorexia. Regardless, it is
impossible to deny the modern worlds improvements in media and their effects on the newer
generations, especially when models are depicted as having that svelte body frame and resorting
to whatever measures needed to maintain it. Jonathon Rader, Chief Executive Officer for Rader
Programs and Eating Disorder Hope, acknowledges that sixty-nine percent of girls admitted
that models shown in magazines influenced their idea of the perfect physique. Rader also notes
that approximately half of the ads shown on television speak about physical attractiveness. In a

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survey conducted by Teen People magazine, twenty-seven percent of girls felt that the media is a
strong influence that ultimately pressures them to have what is considered a flawless body (qtd.
in Eating Disorders). This never-ending exposure to advertisements in magazines may drive
girls to become self-conscious about their bodies and to obsess over their physical appearance
as a means of measuring their worth or place in society (Eating Disorders). Based on this
research, the influence of anorexia has been exemplified as models are resorting to drastic
measures like anorexia to maintain that small frame required in their profession. Children
and young adults are succumbing to this influence and taking it upon themselves to see a thin
frame as the only socially-accepted body shape. In summation, if the influence of models is one
of the main causes of anorexia, why would magazines and advertisements in general focus
mainly on models of a thin physique?
Furthermore, another major influence that promotes a thinner shape as the ideal figure is
through visuals like television shows and movies. These visuals depict women of a thin body
frame further emphasizes that superficial mindset and the desire to be thin in adolescents. In
addition, thin actresses, though unintentionally, profess the connotation that in order to be
successful, one must look a certain way to reach that particular level of success.
Images on T.V. spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and
beautiful, buy more stuff because people will like us and we'll be better people for it.
Programming on the [television] rarely depicts men and women with average" body-
types or [bad] clothes, ingraining in the back of all our minds that this is the type of life
we want. Overweight characters are typically portrayed as lazy, the one with no friends,
or "the bad guy", while thin women and [strong] men are the successful, popular,
[sexually appealing], and powerful ones. How can we tell our children that it's what's

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inside that counts, when the media continuously contradicts this message? (The
Media).
This quotation is reinstating that the media is responsible for misconstruing the thoughts of
teenagers into believing only the medias portrayal of success. Obviously, the actresses in
television shows and movies cannot be blamed for unintentionally ingraining obsessive thoughts
in adolescents, but it is clear that their body frame translates to these young people wanting to
attain as much power as the celebrities themselves. As a result, the examples set in movies and
television implant specific mindsets to be thin, which results in increasingly drastic measures in
maintaining that svelte frame to glimpse the frivolous life of a celebrity, even if it requires
starving oneself in the process.
Ultimately, pro-ana, or pro-anorexia, websites are the most significant cause of
anorexia in children and adolescents. According to Jeremy Laurance, a writer for The
Independent, these websites list ways to become anorexic from the perspective of an anorexic,
detailing ways to starve for perfection. Moreover, these websites feature thin models and
actresses with headings titled thinspiration to emphasize the effect of celebrities on young
women (Laurance). With a range of four hundred to five hundred websites encouraging anorexia
and other eating disorders are accessed by thousands of girls every day (Laurance). It has been
proven that teenagers with eating disorders are using the sites and applying the harmful content
to their own lives forty percent of participants in the survey had accessed at least one pro-
anorexia site (Grayson). Pro-anorexia websites are toxic to young girls and women in that they
provide harmful examples to stay thin, even if it means resorting to serious measures like
starving oneself. Therefore, pro-anorexia websites are the main cause of anorexia in teenagers
because they provide, in detail, ways to be anorexic and have that desired body shape.

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In conclusion, the influence of models in advertisements, movies and television shows,
and the Internet, especially pro-anorexia websites, promote the superficial need to maintain a
thin body frame. Many adolescents succumb to the harmful aspects of anorexia; roughly twenty
percent of people with anorexia nervosa will prematurely die from complications related to their
eating disorder, including but not limited to heart problems and suicide (Eating Disorder
Statistics). In order to lower cases of anorexia in adolescents, awareness needs to be professed
insisting that a thin frame is not the only acceptable body shape; however, women will continue
the desire to be skinny in this society. Healthy ways to lose weight or diet should be instilled as
opposed to automatically resorting to anorexia or other eating disorders. Furthermore, movie
directors or modeling agencies could not only focus on women with a svelte frame, but rather a
broader range of body types to ensure that viewers are not only seeing the success of thin
women.













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Works Cited
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Health Channel, 25 Apr. 2005. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
"Eating Disorders Statistics." Eating Disorders Statistics National Association of
Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. ANAD, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Grayson, Charlotte E. "Pro-Anorexia, Pro-Ana Websites: Popularity and Impact."
WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Laurance, Jeremy. "Hundreds of Websites Urging Girls to 'Starve for Perfection'." The
Independent. 28 Nov. 2012: 16. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
"Media Influence." Eating Disorders and Media Influence. Rader Programs, n.d. Web. 28
Apr. 2014.
"The Media." The Something Fishy. The Something Fishy Website on Eating Disorders,
n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Rader, Jonathon. "Does the Media Cause Eating Disorders?" Healthcare
Communications. N.p., 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Rosen, Meghan. "The Anorexic Brain." Science News 2013 aug 10: 20-24. Web. 29 Apr.
2014.
Siegel, Judy. "Photoshop Law Gets Scientific Backing." Jerusalem Post (International) 2013 dec
09:
7. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
Staff, Proquest. At Issue: Anorexia. N.p.: ProQuest LLC, 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.