How does social pressure affect the self image of teen girls?

Nobody’s perfect, but media aimed at teen girls often makes them think they should be. In this video, psychologist Dr. Jennifer Hartstein discusses ways that parents can help kids love themselves no matter what they see on TV.

Transcript

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[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNIFER HARTSTEIN: It's really important to start teaching girls when they're very young how to interpret what advertising is,

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what the media is trying to put out there, and what's really the reality. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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The social media and social pressure that's out there through magazines, through television shows, through any sort of advertising image

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has a strong impact on girls at any age, and even more so when they're teenagers. And appearance and self-image is such a major part

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of their identity. If your daughter is 5' 11", she's not necessarily going to be 100 pounds and be healthy.

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So you need to really talk with her about what is healthy versus what is skinny and unhealthy. And help promote positive images of women

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in their lives-- strong, smart, intellectual athletic, whatever might be meaningful to them so that they can really

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embrace what that looks like and that women and intelligence and strengths come in all different sizes. And that's going to promote their self-esteem instead

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of only focusing on the unattainable. That's really what's given to them through all of the media that's promoted. The truth is this doesn't only apply to teen girls.

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We have to also think about how all of the media images impact boys who are also getting the same sexualized,

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"girls should look a certain way" messages. And on top of that, getting boys should look a certain way. They should be muscular. They should be fit.

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They should be athletic. Eating disorders are on the rise in boys as well. So we want to be able to teach boys what a healthy body image in the same way

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that we would be teaching girls. [AUDIO LOGO]