As a result of the media’s influence, along with the constant comparison to other people’s bodies, teens often find it harder to accept their own body image.
When senior Jennifer Wayland was a freshman, she won Scholastic’s “Breaking Barriers” contest. Her essay, titled “Just a Number,” discusses the struggle she faced with her body image and the need to have what she felt was a “good” body.
“I always felt that I wasn’t attractive and didn’t like my body, and then I started restricting what I ate and exercising a lot and trying to lose weight even though I was underweight to start with,” Wayland said.
According to Wayland, striving to become skinnier played a large role in her life.
“I was cranky all the time because I was hungry all the time,” Wayland said. “It was affecting my mood, and I thought about food all the time.”
While there are stereotypes for what the “perfect” body is, Nancy Bradley, a registered dietitian nutritionist, licensed dietitian, and a certified diabetes educator, notes that the “ideal” body image is an individually developed concept.
“I think the concept of ‘ideal’ changes over one’s lifespan,” Bradley said. “What is important to you changes over time. Some people strive for an ideal body, some strive for a healthy body, and some strive just to be healthier.”
Although what someone believes is the best body may be a personal value, barriers have developed separating those on both ends of the weight spectrum.
“Society may be conditioned on how not to look,” Bradley said. “There is a terrible prejudice against people who are obese. There is an attitude that it is OK to be prejudice against people who are overweight or obese.”
Senior Tyler Rosen, a football player who acknowledges that he is overweight, agrees with Bradley that while society may have a perception of the “right way” to look, that appearance does not define a person.
“It’s not really about what anyone else thinks,” Rosen said. “It’s really about seeing yourself and whether you like what you see or don’t.”
Rosen declares he is happy with his current appearance, and even banters with what he claims is a strong friend group to support him.
“If I make a joke about myself, it’s because of who I am as a person, not because I hate who I am,” Rosen said. “It’s just a joke. If you have good friends and you are a good person, people are going to be nice to you no matter how you look.”

In an effort to improve overall health or body image, teens make changes to their lifestyle, including increased physical activity or diet adjustments.
Deciding to become a vegan for a ethical reasons, sophomore Hannah Briggs now sees that her choice has ensured her health.
“I feel cleaner,” Briggs said. “When you eat unhealthy food, you feel disgusting sometimes, and when your only option is to eat healthier food, you feel better.”
Briggs acknowledges the health benefits in her decision against animal cruelty.
“When you first start and you’re not used to eating so healthy, you do lose weight,” Briggs said.
Ultimately, Briggs feels that the change in diet has helped her health and recommends taking it slowly if one wishes to stop eating meat, saying it is best to go in steps, from vegetarian, to pescetarian, then adopting a vegan diet.
Bradley agrees with taking on a diet in steps, stating that diet can play a large role in body image, and that it can affect how people feel about themselves.
“The biggest diet change would be to eat a healthy diet with a daily intake of fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy products, whole grains and lean protein,” Bradley said. “Decreasing intake of sugared beverages, sweets and high fat snack and fast foods would be a great start.”
For other students, diet is not as much of a factor in their image or health as their level of physical activity.
Sophomore Andrew Mannis works out at least four days a week in order to stay fit.
“I work out to stay in shape because I don’t play a fall or winter sport and won’t play a spring sport this year,” Mannis said. “I like to have some sort of physical activity during the day.”
When Mannis works out, he mainly does weight exercises, but will also attempt to fit running in as much as he can. However the reasoning on why he works out goes deeper than just staying healthy.
“Being healthy and having a healthy fitness base and lifestyle is very good for your future,” Mannis said. “It keeps my energy and attitude up. It makes me happier, and at this point in my life, it’s a part of my routine so it’s weird if I don’t do it.

While struggles with body image provide a large obstacle to overcome, Bradley states that talking about the issue, getting help from others, eating better, and physical activity can help people find it possible to feel better about themselves.
Bradley works with those suffering from medical conditions like celiac disease, diabetes and obesity; she educates clients on what is right to eat for their condition and helps patients change their behavior.
“I try to be compassionate and supportive,” Bradley said. “If I think they need additional help, I encourage them to see a therapist, or if they have an eating disorder, I will recommend they seek counseling from professionals that specialize in eating disorder.”
Part of that support, Bradley states is helping her clients to do things that boost self-confidence and ultimately improve their body image.
“I think it is important to work on one’s self-esteem and focus on activities that make you feel good about yourself,” Bradley said.
Wayland echoed this idea, stating that enjoyable physical activity that made her feel good helped with her body image, along with trying to stop focusing on comparing herself to other people. Wayland said that also means ignoring the thousands of social media posts that can damage people’s view of themselves.
“I think social media can be incredibly detrimental to someone’s body image because social media is crafting your whole life and your whole appearance on there,” Wayland said. “It’s not real, it’s not what your life is really like.”
Wayland found that taking a break from social media helped her focus less on possible judgments from others.
“I noticed not only that I had a lot more free time, I was feeling better about myself; I wasn’t feeling as worried about how I looked or what other people thought of me,” Wayland said. “That made me realized that when you’re on social media, you’re unconsciously comparing yourself to everything you see, being like ‘Wow, they’re so pretty, they’re having so much fun.’”
Wayland acknowledges that many people may have concerns about how they look and how the world perceives them.
“It’s normal to struggle with your body image,” Wayland said. “And it’s not something to feel embarrassed about.”