Self Esteem

1. I think that people are portrayed differently in media because they want to give us what society wants. On magazines they will probably put something provacative on the cover to catch the viewer's eyes. However, you don't need to put something provacative to get the viewer's attention. There are over a million different ways to catch a viewer's attention without using something provacative.

2. As a teenager, I am affected by these images. I personally don't give a lot of care in my appearence but other people do. In society people mostly judge you on appearence. Sometimes people won't be your friend because you're not dressed the way the media says should be dressed like. As I become more mature, I have learned that you do what you wanna do. You shouldn't change the way you act or dress just because someone told you too or the media disapproves of it.

3. I think to reduce the amount of young men and women that are negatively affected by these images are to learn that things we see in media aren't really people. The people on magazines or tv shows have either been through photoshop or are wearing a ton of make-up. In addition, the media should stop trying to potray what true beauty is. I remember this one episode of "That's So Raven" where Raven was on the cover of a magazine, but they only used her face not her body. They did this because apparently Raven wasn't "skinny enough". At the end of the episode Raven said this...

Images from Tumblr

In media we need more shows and episodes like this. We need shows to teach teenagers and children that we are all unique and special in our own way. Noone can tell us that we're not.

4. To be honest, if there was a magazine cover where the subject wasn't all glammed up, I probably wouldn't give the magazine a second look. I know I sound shallow but it is true. If the magazine had a regular person on it, I wouldn't look at it twice or look through the magazine because nothing catches my eye. I am not saying that people that aren't glammed up are boring, I just prefer to look through a magazine with something that pops out and lures me in. I am not suggesting that the person should have their face photoshopped, I am saying that a magazine cover with a plain old person does not look appealling to read. If that person had an interesting background or was doing something interesting then I would probably look through that magazine.