- Nine out of 10 teenage girls are unhappy with the shape
of their bodies and say they have inherited their insecurities from their
mothers, according to a survey.
-
- Research shows that the desire to be slender and "beautiful"
dominates the life of 14-year-olds.
-
- Only one in 10 of the 2,000 girls who were questioned
were happy with their appearance. The rest said their mothers had "insecure
body images" and the syndrome had simply perpetuated itself.
-
- A fifth of the girls were overweight, but three-fifths
of them thought they needed to lose weight and 64 per cent of under-13s
had already been on a diet.
-
- Helen Johnston, the editor of Bliss magazine, which commissioned
the survey, said: "Female body image obsession has reached epidemic
proportions, filtering down to young girls.
-
- "Teenage girls look to their mums for guidance only
to see them continually worrying about their own body shape and size.
-
- "Now many girls of 13 and 14 are dieting constantly
at an age when their bodies are still developing."
-
- She said it was "tragic" that even girls of
a normal weight wanted to be skinnier.
-
- "Teenage girls are gorgeous - cuddly tums, curvy
thighs and bonny bums included - and it's time they believed it. They need
to stop thinking thin and start thinking healthy and learn that confidence
is much sexier than thin legs."
-
- The research disclosed some worrying facts about the
lengths young girls would consider going to in their quest for the perfect
body.
-
- More than a quarter of 14-year-olds - 26 per cent - said
they had considered plastic surgery or taking diet pills, rising to 42
per cent among those who were overweight.
-
- Almost a fifth - 19 per cent - were "already suffering
from an eating disorder" such as anorexia or bulimia.
-
- The survey, covering girls in England, Wales, Scotland
and Northern Ireland, found that 78 per cent of teenagers wanted to lose
more than half a stone in weight, while 46 per cent of these wanted to
lose more than a stone.
-
- Six out of 10 teenage girls, whatever size they were,
would "be happier if they were thinner", rising to 90 per cent
who thought they were overweight.
-
- Three-quarters of the girls thought that thin girls were
more popular and attractive to boys, while 86 per cent of overweight girls
thought their thinner counterparts had more girl and boy friends.
-
- More than half of all teenage girls despaired that they
would never look like their female role model.
-
- When asked who they thought had the best female body,
the teenagers invariably identified pop stars such as Britney Spears, Beyonce
Knowles and Kylie Minogue.
-
- Andrea Scherzer, a psychotherapist who specialises in
eating disorders, said: "These girls need to learn to value themselves
as individuals first.
-
- "It is with the guidance of parents and other adults
in close contact with teens that they can learn to shift the focus of their
negative preoccupation with body shape to that of building inner strength
and self-confidence."
-
- The magazine has launched a Love Your Body campaign to
help teenage girls come to terms with their body shape.
-
- Four years ago Tessa Jowell, the former minister for
health, held a day's consultation with women in the fashion, modelling
and media industry on young women's concerns about the pressure to be thin.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/06/nbod
y06.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/06/ixhome.html
|
