Confident and Gorgeous

By: Allyx Moedl

Media is a part of every one of our lives. Even if we don’t own a television, we see movies, read magazines, hear the celebrity gossip, and read our books. We are constantly getting an onslaught of what is being said, worn, or done by famous people and we seem to think that that is how we should all act and be. I spoke with a few different people to see how they felt about the effects of the media. Erin Tenney, age 27, feels that magazines and movies put a bar on beauty that is just “impractical and impossible” for the average American to reach. “There is such a standard in America for women to be beautiful and it all comes from the media. Movie stars are all a size two and wear incredible clothes and the world has somehow gotten into their heads that that is how we are all supposed to look. I think we forget that they get to have every picture airbrushed and altered and every video shot at specific angles in specific lighting,” says Erin.

Jessie Oborn is 17 and a senior in high school. She is a confident, gorgeous girl who feels she “doesn’t need anyone famous to tell [her] what to wear and how to think.” She says that the media affects girls her age the most by making them feel like they have to be skinny. When she was just a freshman her best friend developed an eating disorder. She was terrified of being fat and having boys dislike her. Even after getting help, she continued to eat very little and diet often so she could stay skinny. Jessie thinks these girls should be more concerned with fun and getting into college and not about how the media thinks they should look.

After looking at my own life I can see that I have allowed the Media to affect me more than I would have thought. I watch movies and TV shows and I long to be like those stars. I want to be beautiful and famous and be able to buy anything that I want. I want my stomach to look like the models I see on the Victoria’s Secret commercials. I want my legs to look like Vanessa Hudgens’ incredibly toned and gorgeous legs. I want Selena Gomez’s entire wardrobe.

If I am not careful I will be consumed by these thoughts. I have to remember that I also want to be myself. I don’t need to be anyone else to be happy because I have a wonderful life and wonderful people in it. I think we sometimes get caught up in the fiction of Hollywood and forget how great our own lives really are.