Media's Negative Effects On Adolescent Girls

Many girls are beginning to live shorter childhoods because they are actually going through puberty sooner, and they are exposed to way more negative media than ever before. The media is everywhere, on TV, internet, cell phones, magazines, and movies. At this age in their life adolescent girls are confused and what they see through the media has a big influence on them. The media features beautiful, thin, and sexy women. They are never praised for there successes, but their looks, which gives girls the wrong idea about themselves. It shows that they are an object of men, and need to please everyone else and they forget about their own needs in the process. Shows such as Americas Next Top Model, anything on MTV, and mostly, Jersey Shore. They expose so many negative things, like sexuality, drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy, and America's Next Top Model places too much emphasis on looks. This makes girls at this age think that that is what they need to do in order to be accepted. The book told stories of girls that are sexual and experiencing with drugs drugs and alcohol in 6th and 7th grade! Thats awful!

The pressure to be thin and beautiful is also one of the reasons why so many girls become bulimic and anorexic. They are shown by magazine covers that that's what beautiful is.

Not to mention all of the magazines that girls read such as Seventeen, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan focus on boys and being sexual, clothes, makeup, and fashion, and how to get your best beach bod. This gives girls entirely wrong ideas about themselves.



The popular music among this age group is also expresses many negative things through the lyrics, that we don't even notice because we're so used to it. I saw something somewhere before that said something like listen to your music next to your parents and then you'll realize how bad it really is. Songs like "Young, Wild, and Free" or "I Hate College" are songs that I can think of that emphasize partying (chemical use) and sex, and just pure rebellion.

I definitely agree that our society is pretty corrupt, and there are way too many negative influences, when there should be more positive ones, but that's just the way it is. Parents need to realize that their kids are growing up in a different world. They need to adjust to that and help them through it, and teach them some positive values.