How Not to Take Fashion Models As The Role Models for Girls

   

Role model is someone that influence a person’s life in a positive way, so being seen as a role model means taking responsibility for all actions. Role models have amazing effects on the lives of teenagers in our society.
Role models have the ability to shape the views, ideals, and actions of teenagers. Role models help teens to discover how they wish to become in the future. It is important for role the models to be positive and responsible in instilling good morals and values because future generations are directly dependent on the today’s role models.  However, not all of (public) figures can be taken as role models. Sometimes, some figures become the news headlines in such a negative way due to their bad behavior, and fashion or lifestyle. There are examples of the figures such as athletes, writers, singers, actors, models and many more. Yet, there are many teenage girls choosing a fashion model to be their role model. They think being a fashion model is cool but actually the lifestyle of a model is bad for teenage girls because they inspire the teenage girls to look fabulous by doing strict diet, putting on excessive makeup, and taking growth supplement.

      As teenagers, girls always want to look perfect and slim. They’ll find a way to look what they want no matter how hard it is. Feeling insecure and anxieties take their confident away. They’re scared to look fat and ugly, some of them try to work out so hard and some of them try to starve that it causes anorexia. Anorexia is a dangerous eating disorder which often starts in the teenage years, a person with anorexia nervosa severely restricts food intake. Anorexics have anxiety with food, weight, dieting, and body image. Mostly they’re doing it by using their fingers or stuff. So, there is a girl named Jasmine who has anorexia and she usually uses brush teeth to make herself vomit by putting the brush teeth in her throat back and forth until she vomits. She eats a lot but after that she throws it up, and she drinks a lot of water to keep herself full and she usually goes to the bathroom after lunch and dinner. She’s 42kg and still thinks that she is fat. And when I asked her why she’s so addicted to lose her weight she said she wants to look like a model named Cara. Cara is one of Victoria Secret Models who is popular among teenage girls nowadays that looks really pretty skinny with no flaws. The shows like America’s Next Top Models are perfect examples of news media that promote skinny models to the extreme. The worst is that there were models who ate cotton balls diet. They ate the balls by dipping it in juice, and this diet plan lasted for five days. 45% of teenage girls have done it.

     Teenage girls these days are being pressured to look fabulous and pretty just like the models on the magazines. They think that being skinny doesn’t really help, while the appearance matters most and most of them are insecure about themselves. Every day is like beauty competition for them. They may put on makeup because they feel pressure to do so. If they don’t, they feel like they’re outsiders so they have to do it . Some girls put on too much makeup to boost their confidence and make them feel good about themselves. However,  but there’s a harmful effect of putting on makeup. Cosmetics has a lot of chemicals that can damage their skin,  besides it will cause problems such as pimples, blackheads, and make you look older. Also they are exposed to danger of diseases like cancer and many other chronic ones. Lipstick contains aluminum which causes long-term anemia and even glucose intolerance, a medical condition that predisposes you to develop diabetes in the future. The chemicals in eyeliner can cause dark circle and premature under age aging and the worst is allergies.

      What if you look pretty and slim but still look short? No! Being short is bad for girls especially even when they wear high heels and they still look short. Many girls want to look good and fit like the models in magazines with their flat shoes and sneakers. Things that suck about being short  is friends keep messing around them. Many young girls want to be tall to be tall, have small tight so that they look good when wearing tight jeans. Some of them take growth supplement in the hope of getting taller. However, after several months they stop taking it when they see there is no significant increase in their height besides  its price is really expensive for teenagers, ranging from Rp.500.000-Rp.1.750.000 not to mention its side effects. Taking growth supplement can make them exposed to cancer, damage to internal organs such as the kidneys, heart, lungs and if it is consumed in large quantities it can cause overdose, stroke, and breathless.

       In conclusion, the real beauty is when you can appreciate yourself. You are most beautiful when you can love yourself.  Don't ever criticize yourself because nobody is perfect and you just have to accept your flaws. Stop feeling insecure about your body image and appearance and stop dieting because it disturb your growth process since you need protein and calcium to grow up. And if you want to be tall you can do some exercise that makes you taller, for example, by stretching your legs and spine. We should stop this bad attitude and start a healthy lifestyle. We could all be victims of anorexia so stop it! Remind yourself and your close surrounding that anorexia is dangerous.