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.
This social media and social pressure that's out there through magazines, through television shows, through any sort of advertising image, have this strong impact on girls at any age, and even more so when they're teenagers, an appearance and self image is such a major part of their identity, so it's really important to start teaching girls when they're very young, how to interpret what advertising is, what the media is trying to put out there and what's really the reality, if your daughter is 5'11 she's not necessarily going to be 100 pounds and be healthy so you need to really talk with her about what's healthy verses what's skinny and unhealthy and help promote positive images of women in their lives.
Strong, smart intellectual, athletic, whatever might be meaningful to them so that they can really embrace what that looks like and that women, intelligence and strength come in all different sizes and that's going to promote their self esteem instead of only focusing on the unattainable that's really what's given to them through all of the media that have promoted, the truth is this doesn't only apply to teen girls we've to also think about how all the needy images impact boys, who are also getting the same sexualised girls should look at certain ways to not do these, and on top of that getting boys to look a certain way, they should be muscular, they should be fit, 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 that we'll be teaching girls.
Healthy teenagers grow into healthy adults. Top kids' health experts offer tips on diet, exercise and emotional well-being to help your teen navigate through puberty, thrive in school and make it through adolescence with aplomb.
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