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WE, as youngsters, live in constant fear of how people see us as individuals.
Some are in a continuous panic about gaining weight and their appearance.
It is an issue that unfortunately many teenagers, especially the girls, battle with every single day.
Sadly, many girls live with this deep pressure to stay paper-thin to preserve their status with their peers.
I have noticed firsthand how this problem has progressed over the years. Many girls, nowadays, experiment with extreme dieting.
As a result many end up fighting diseases such as malnutrition and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
United Nations’ statistics show that eating disorders are the third most common chronic illness among adolescent females.
This is happening to girls all around the world, yet many choose to ignore it and therefore many girls end up paying a high price.
The constant pressure can cause many girls to suffer from psychotropic depression and never-ending stress.
Studies show that girls who suffer from eating disorders relatively see a drop in their school grades and choose to ignore those around them.
Many question why girls, in particular, behave in such a way.
One of the reasons for all this may be that they idolise celebrities on the television who themselves are dangerously thin.
Furthermore, many modelling agencies, only hire girls who are severely thin. Some girls think that being tremendously skinny is the norm for their generation and that it has become a fashion trend to be a size zero.
It is high time that appropriate measures and action was taken to guide these lost girls.
Actions such as setting up centres and clinics should be taken into consideration.
Better education on proper nutrition should be taught at schools.
Like everyone else, we youngsters always try to find ways to become extraordinary that we sometimes tend to forget that it is OK to be ordinary.
YouthTalk
By Ismaeel Na’ar
editor@gulfweekly.com
