As the online media rises, eating disorders follow straight behind, but who is at risk?
A topic that has been covered many times before, but do we listen or is it too late for some..
We have all heard it in the news, and read it before, the media has done this, the media has done that but young teenage girls being brain washed by size images of size 0 women on the television. Magazines with the heading "how to lose weight - fast!" Young children are being exposed to many media advertisements a day for beauty, perfume, clothes etc. We all like to look our best, some like to work with what they have, however some like to lose what they have. Many models are being told to lose more weight to look their absolute "best." Adverts only using slim, beautiful women, what image is this giving our generation? Still, the online media is doing the job better than ever. Many young girls (and boys) across the UK are being affected by eating disorders (a recognized mental illness) potentially as a result of the media's constant in your face weight obsession. Young children are believing they are ugly just because they do not look as good as the people on the television, magazines and more recently, online. 
Eating disorders, Anorexia Nervosa, and Bulimia Nervosa both affect your self-esteem, eating habits and everyday life. Eating disorders affect the person in ways many do not know about, or simply are not aware of. The patient in both disorders will believe that they are overweight and try to lose weight in any possible way, such as starving oneself, and purging food that has been eaten, and most likely, "binged" upon. Both illnesses can make the patient incredibly ill and ill nourished, in many cases lead to death. There are many cases of young teenagers committing suicide as they "know" they will never be good enough. Suprisingly enough, most girls who do get eating disorders did start off a healthy weight, but were then brainwashed into believing that that was bad and "fat." What a waste of a life, happiness and success.Tumblr is relatively recent to the world wide web, it is a place where millions of people all over the world can connect and share images, gifs and videos. Many "pro-ana" pages can be found upon this website, promoting eating disorders and how to be stick thin. "Fashion" images are reblogged of underweight mentally ill women, yet just because they look good to the eye, it does not mean that they are happy inside or healthy. Do not get me wrong I do love Tumblr, as I can share what I like and people can share with me things of my interest, but why does such a horrible thing such as eating disorders need to be shared with the world, the world needs to be rid of these disorders, not helping people to develop them.
I try my best to stay away from websites, pages and people I "follow" or "like" on social media sites, as I would like to live in a world where your weight does not matter, as long as you are a healthy weight and you do not eat too much garbage. I believe that what makes a person attractive is their personality and manners. You can be stick thin all you like but if your not a good person inside, people will see that.Think about it, what would you rather be, underweight and ignored by all, or a healthy weight or slightly overweight but with a charming and polite personality and loved by many. I hope you enjoyed reading my rant and learn to love yourself the way you are, because beauty is skin deep.
Remember, its who you are inside that makes you a star.
Lucy Findlater
If you are suffering with an eating disorder, or would like help and advice with anything, please contact beat:
http://www.b-eat.co.uk/
Or arrange a meeting with your local GP.
Feel free to comment below with any of your opinions or responses
