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Body image plays an important role in the lives of adolescents and is heavily impacted by society and parental figures.

BY CO-PRINT-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MADELINE HAMMETT & COPY EDITOR KATE MCCARTHY

Fat. Skinny. Chubby. Bony. Overweight. Underweight.

These descriptive words have shifted in their connotation to become shameful words in our society rather than what their intended purpose was: scientific and informational. These words and phrases have taken on a life of their own as they are now used by society to criticize, attack, and break down the way different bodies are viewed.

“The definition of body image is really important because if you are using positive body image as something to live up to, then that becomes just one more thing to do.” Nutrition Therapist and Eating Disorder Dietitian Corrine Dobbas, MS, RD said. For teens it feels like ‘if I don’t love my body then I am failing’.”

Positive body image is not believing what society claims to be the ideal body and trying to become that. Positive body image is fluctuating and something that takes time, it is important to love who you are as a person too, according to Dobbas.

“Having a positive body image doesn’t mean you wake up and start loving your body every moment of every single day,” Dobbas said. “It is being caring and compassionate and kind with yourself in those moments where you feel less connected to your body.”

Hereditary body image is a very difficult thing that many families struggle with. It is often accidental when motherly and 14 // LeJournal

fatherly figures impose the way they view and feel about their body onto their children. Despite its accidental nature, it is something that happens much more often than not. Body image is a difficult topic to bring up and address in families despite its prevalence in many homes, especially homes where teens reside.

“The way that family members talk about bodies has a really significant impact on the relationship that teenagers have with their own bodies and food,” Dobbas said.

When key figures in the home view their bodies as lesser than, restrict food, choose to go on unhealthy diets or avidly work out without refueling with proper nutrients, children will naturally follow those same tendencies at an earlier age. This tendency to follow as they have seen is only natural. Though this may not be the intent, interactions in the homes such as those above can lead to eating disorders in children, parents or both.

“If you have a parent who is constantly talking about how their body is bad or is making comments about other people in larger bodies that are negative then there is going to be great risks as a teen,” Dobbas said.

Eating disorders come in many shapes and forms of internal and external scrutiny and are not a linear battle. More often than not, they are not easy to see from the outward appearance of a

person, but rather involve a great deal of mental and emotional turmoil on top of the physical battle.

“Eating disorders come in all different genders, sizes and ethnicities. You could be in a larger body and still be anorexic,” Dobbas said. “When somebody in a larger body starts losing weight and they get praise from society, that furthers the eating disorder.”

When talking about body image, eating disorders are always something that will come up because of their prevalence especially within the adolescent age group. Often, eating disorders tend to chase people who already struggle with negative body image which is why it can be so prevalent.

“Eating disorders and negative body image don’t happen in a vacuum, they happen for a reason,” Dobbas said. “That could be because internally, they aren’t sure how to cope with messages about food and body or how to cope with stressing emotions.”

In a home where both parents and children struggle with seeing their bodies in a negative light, eating disorders are more likely to occur and harder to fight. They are more difficult to overcome because eating disorders are an intense emotional, mental and physical battle that require full dedication and commitment to be able to beat.

“If a family system is constantly focusing on ‘these foods are good, these foods are bad’ that can create a lot of fear for kids and teenagers - and for adults as well,” Dobbas said. “It is really important to understand that eating disorders and negative body image don’t just happen for no reason.”

A strong support system is required to be able to successfully battle an eating disorder. When both parents and children struggle with the way they see their bodies and potentially having mirrored struggles with eating disorders, that makes fighting off an eating disorder even more difficult. When neither the children nor the parents are strong enough to support the other, that leads to a dangerous spiral of eating disorder relapse.

“The parents and how bodies and food are talked about have a significant impact on the kids and the whole family system as a whole,” Dobbas said.

The impact that parents have on a child’s body image and the cover story role hereditary body image plays in that is critical to be aware of because of potential future consequences.

“The reality is our bodies are always going to change,” Dobbas said. “Your 17-year-old body will look different then your 40-yearold body. If we put all this emphasis on liking how we look or liking how other people think we look then we will always be disappointed because we will change.”

Body positivity can put focus on looks rather than loving selves as a whole being. People are so much more than their appearance, according to Counselor Erika Ellwanger. Using the term body positivity in conjunction with what the body does for us - our heart beating, breathing, moving, thinking and on and on might be the better way to reference body positivity.

“I think redefining standards could help improve the mental health for not only adolescents but women and men of all ages,” Ellwanger said. “We base our self worth on numbers on the scale rather than being who we are. Think about what we can accomplish or how we could feel if we used that energy in other ways!”

Society plays a huge role in body image as well. Instagram likes, TikTok saves, retweets, and Snapchat stories all play small parts in the huge game of comparison. Comparison is a dangerous game to play, and one that often ends in self depreciation. Junior Addi Diaz is all too familiar with this game of comparison.

“‘Skinny equals successful’, I told myself daily,” Diaz said. ”I began starving myself and making myself throw up every day in between ballet classes. I didn’t care that starving myself wasn’t healthy, I just wanted to fit in.”

Diaz has chosen to claim her body as her own rather than allow society to shame it with preconceived notions and stereotypes. Her story, along with others, are victories being claimed and stories waiting to be shared.

“Is it worth it? I always told myself that ‘yes’, it’s worth it if I end up skinny, then everyone will want me and respect me,” Diaz said. “I’ve very recently learned that it truly is not worth it. Go live your life because at the end of the day when you are on your deathbed you are not going to remember how much you weighed at sixteen years old.”

POSING FOR POSITIVITY. Students volunteered to participate in a body positivity photo shoot on Nov. 23. “Body positivity means no judgement based on what body type you are,” senior Cirese Mendolia said. “It’s embracing your inner beauty instead of setting yourself on a scale of society’s beauty standards.” (photos by Madeline Hammett)

Aprille Castaneda: “My journey with self-image and body image has been rough. Growing up, I felt as if I was too chubby and had “boyish” features. When I started high school, I was very insecure, and that’s something that’s only gotten worse with social media. Junior year I had an eating disorder and would go days without eating because I hated what I saw in the mirror. I am slowly recovering from it, but the weight gain I got from recovering has been rough for me. I am still learning to love myself for who I am what I look like, but I feel as if I’ll always continue to love my body more as time goes on because, in the end, I should feel beautiful in my own skin and not worry about what others have to say.”

Bridget Mcdaniel: “My struggle with my body began in 8th grade when I started medication to help with my period. I gained weight from it and my mom started to point it out. She had little comments that made me feel awful. She was trying to help but in the moment those comments just brought my confidence even more down. Posts on social media don’t help either. Everything on my feed or for you page was just girls with flat stomachs. That definitely didn’t make me feel better about my body. I still am not totally happy with the way my body looks but I’ve grown to be more confident which is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Mae Trotter: “In 6th grade I became active on social media which was the start of many insecurities. I feel like a lot of girls’ body insecurities stem from what they see on social media. Looking at instagram models and seeing girls with “the perfect” body makes you realize how different you look from them and it can be exhausting. I often felt like I wasn’t enough or needed to change the way I looked, but my mindset is improving as I get older. I’ve realized that just because those girls we see on social media look like they have the perfect bodies and lives, most of the time they aren’t actually happy. Many people photoshop their pictures to change the way their body looks, or they aren’t eating enough to achieve their appearance. Although I still am very insecure, like many other girls our age, I have started realizing what’s actually important, which is staying happy and healthy instead of comparing yourself to people on social media.”

Megan Propeck: “I was never really someone who was into the ‘accept yourself’ stuff. I never had really been someone who had been confident in my body until last year. I started working out more and eating better. I wasn’t really confident. All my friends were smaller than me, I always felt like a bigger friend. After quarantine started, I started using fitness to keep a schedule. It was good for me because I made a lot of progress in my headspace and fitness. I was working out a lot and I wasn’t eating enough. As an athlete, I knew I shouldn’t be stick thin - that doesn’t work in my sport. I wasn’t fueling my body in the way I know to now. I started to learn to not view food as an enemy or to not work out to make up for eating. Instead, I learned to see food as fuel for my body.”

Reece Howard: “As a kid I never really struggled with body image because it wasn’t a focus in my life. As I got older and started to use social media, though, that’s when insecurities started creeping into my life. I was affected by the way we are pushed to have certain body types. I’m a size 12-14 but knowing social media wants a size 0-4 really started to affect my mindset. I started struggling really deeply and felt really insecure about everything about myself. My relationship with food was truly messed up. I struggled a ton with calorie counting and I was eating 1400 calories a day and sometimes even less. I wasn’t getting the things my body needed, but I didn’t care because all I cared about was getting smaller. I realized I couldn’t do that to myself anymore and deleted the app I was using to calorie count. I still struggled a lot with insecurities even though my relationship with food was better. Recently, body positivity really started to take over the media and I began to see it alot. The more and more it grew I started personally following those body positive influencers. These body positive influencers have helped me a lot to personally love who I am and begin my journey to self love and a better relationship with food. I, Reece, love the way that I am even if social media doesn’t.”

“One of my trainers said I was going to get stronger arms. I wanted to get stronger. Once I actually got bigger arms, I thought I looked so maslcuine and not feminine and cute or skinny and small and short. It hurt my self esteem a little because I’m not as pretty and because I look more manly with all my muscles, but then I was listening to a podcast recently and it was like, ‘our bodies aren’t something to be looked at or used and it should be a good thing to have all those muscles because it shows how much strength you have.’ So then I could appreciate it more. I thought that was really cool. I think it’s a good way to look at it. At least I’m hella strong.”

Sophia Grantham: “Some days I feel like I’m not super premature - I feel like everybody has those days. Sometimes I accept that I am and I either work out or dress up and take pictures and I instantly feel better. I never really looked in the mirror and thought I was ugly, which I know a lot of girls my age struggle with, and I think it’s because of my amazing mother. She, from the beginning of time, put sticky notes on my mirror of positive things. I think that really helped stop those thoughts.”

Addi Diaz: “My journey with body image has been a long one. I started training as a pre-professional ballerina when I was 11 years old and that quickly altered my perception of my body image. I never had cared about what I looked like until one day when I was about 13 years old, a girl had commented on my looks saying to me, ‘Do you have an eating disorder or something?’ That comment completely changed the way I saw myself, and it began my journey with eating disorders and body dysmorphia. I began watching everything I put into my body, wanting to be like everyone else and stay as skinny as I possibly could. One day, I injured myself and I gained quite a bit of weight from the time off. When I could be physically active again I was told I needed to “lose my tummy” and “suck in my butt” from ballet teachers and that pressure made my ED flare up more so than ever. I began body checking every possible second that I could, hardcore dieting, working out and overexerting myself. Then, I was told that I needed to get surgery which ended in me gaining about 25 pounds in about a 3 month time period. That was a year ago, and my journey towards recovery is still continuing to this day. I see a nutritionist and an eating disorder therapist weekly to help me stay balanced and keep me feeling more motivated. Recovery is extremely challenging and I learn more and more about myself each day. It is remarkably hard to exist as a teenage girl in this generation, there is pressure not just from yourself, but from everyone around you.” December 2020 // 17