How to change your perception about beauty

Everyone is beautiful. Open your mind and eyes to see it!

If you’ve glanced at a magazine or turned on the TV in the last decade, you’ve got a good idea of what media’s definition of an attractive woman looks like: she’s tall, has long, flowing hair, is surgically and digitally enhanced, blemish-free, and very thin. In fact, academic research tells it like we see it: studies show the women we see in media these days are thinner than ever, much thinner than the real world, and very often thin enough to be considered anorexic by world health standards. And in a world where a constant – and we mean constant – flow of media images far exceeds the number of women we could ever see face to face, this abnormally thin and digitally enhanced feminine ideal has become the norm in our minds. A counterfeit, dangerous, unattainable norm.

This one constant image of what it looks like to be a woman is so powerful! When we only see a certain type of woman presented positively in media, from teen magazines to family sitcoms, it’s no wonder media contributes to women’s painfully low self-esteem and focus on appearance. We know all too well the pressure girls and women feel to achieve the unrealistic weight, size or shape represented as normal and attainable in media. We are identical twins working on our PhDs in media studies, and we are committed to helping females everywhere recognize and reject harmful ideals so we can move on to everything more important!

• When Thin is Way Too In 
• The Battle to Take Back Beauty 
• Remember: Every image of women in media has been digitally manipulated.

• If everyone feels bad about the way they look, it must be the standard that needs changing – not us!

Next time you are flipping through a magazine or watching TV and movies, train yourself to ask important questions about what you see. If you don’t like the answers you find, remember you can turn away from the messages that hurt you!