How you feel about your physical appearance, what society tells you to feel about your physical appearance, what your family and friends have to say about your physical appearance, and what the media says about physical appearance - all of these and more contribute to your body image. Body image plays a big role in a girl's life as we can see though the following stories about Jill and Jen. Both eighteen years old, Jill and Jen are on the same varsity collegiate sports team but have different body images because of their respective upbringings. Both Jill and Jen are in very good physical condition and they have similar body types however, their feelings about their bodies are different.

Jill's parents were very supportive of her and from a very young age her mother was sure to point out the unrealistic ideals portrayed by the media by commenting on advertisements with too thin super models. In Jill's house, there was a focus on eating well and exercising regularly, and a good body was described as a healthy body. Though she struggled with feelings of dissatisfaction towards her body in middle school, Jill thinks this was probably just caused by "the awkwardness" of being that age. Now she feels very much at home in her body and is able to help her friends feel better about the way they look. Instead of internalizing what her culture says about her body, she was able to internalize what her mother said about a healthy body being a good body, and this has helped her maintain a positive body image.

For Jen on the other hand, things were slightly different. Growing up Jen's father often told her that she was "too fat," and all through middle school and into high school, Jen felt bad about her body. At one point, she says she was eating less than 600 calories a day because she felt the need to be thinner. Jen was quick to recognize the negative impact of the media on girls' body image at large in a group discussion but says that despite this knowledge she still sometimes feels fat. Joining an athletic team in college, something she never had time for in high school has really helped Jen with her body image and her self-esteem. Working out and being a part of a team gives Jen more confidence and a sense of worth that she was lacking in her family. Still she sometimes feels uncomfortable in her skin and wishes she could change certain of her physical attributes.

Many girls like Jen struggle with negative self body image because they believe they are overweight, ugly, or unlovable. Negative self body image is a big problem because it can result in low self -esteem and a low sense of self worth. In today's society where we are constantly told that what we look like is most important and then told how we should look it is important to remember that every woman's body is different and beautiful in its own way.

The biggest contributor to negative self body image is the media. Television shows, advertising, books, the Internet, and magazines all make up the media. Often the job of advertisers is defined as creating a "need" and then telling people how to fulfill this new need by consuming. Today a "need" created by the media is to be physically perfect; to be a size zero, to be "beautiful," by advertisers' standards and this is an ideal many of us buy into. This ideal is marketed mostly to women and is particularly harmful for teenage girls. Because there is such a push towards being "perfect" many girls begin to feel that there is something wrong with their bodies and that they need to be fixed.

This need to be fixed can result in eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia where a girl will starve herself or make herself throw up to lose weight. This desire to be perfect and this feeling that she is lacking is most hurtful for a girl's self -esteem. Self-esteem is very important especially during the teenage years and that is why we all need to help fight negative body image. By reminding ourselves that a healthy body is a beautiful body and by loving and caring for our own bodies we can start down the road of repair. We can help our friends by educating them about negative body image, too. We need to remember that our bodies are extensions of ourselves and in order to love ourselves, we need to love our bodies. So let's start today. Look in the mirror and forget what the media, your parents, your culture, your friends have been telling you and find the beauty that is living there.