Children

I remember my friends 6 year old little sister had said she didn't want to eat anymore food at the dinner table for fear of gaining weight. She was a short, skinny little girl already to begin with. This sounded pretty bizarre to me to see how much of an impact that the media spews out to youth about self image and how important it is to look a certain way in order to be accepted by society. I remembered this incident after reading the article titled "The kids aren't alright" by John Grace on The Guardian. The article had several stories, one being an 18 year old girl that clearly had problems with anorexia and bulimia, which later led to cutting and burning herself. Even though it looks like this kind of problem should be clear as day to a parent of a child with these problems, her parents were in complete denial or her disease and condition. I know that anorexia and bulimia are diagnosis of a disease but I feel as if its a completely preventable disease and is purely set off by human vain. It is not natural for someone to desire to not nourish their body with essentials that is needed in order to survive. I feel like these thoughts and feelings develop into a disease after obsession and pressure to attain this image that society has labeled as "beautiful".