A new survey released shows that the average age for a girl's first memory of feeling self-conscious about body image in the United States is getting younger. The extensive study shows the effects of the country's body-obsessed media on the psyche of young girls across the nation.
According to the survey conducted by Yahoo Health and reported by Yahoo Parenting, the average age when a girl starts to be conscious of her body image has gone down to as young as nine to 10 years old as shared in t he survey by those teen-respondents (aged 13 to 17).
The report also says that the biggest factors in making girls self-conscious about their bodies at such a very young age are their classmates and such influence given by the different forms of media such as television shows, magazines and social media.
"The younger kids are getting messages earlier about how they should appear," Robyn Silverman, author of 'Good Girls Don't Get Fat: How Weight Obsession Is Messing Up Our Girls' and 'How We Can Help Them Thrive Despite It', tells Yahoo Parenting in an interview. "Kids feel more hurried to behave [older] and wear adult fashions, and feel that their body needs to look a certain way. All those things taken together are creating a more self-conscious society."
Silverman also suggests that parents can stop their children's obsession with body image by always communicating and discussing with them the different aspects of the stimuli they are getting from the different forms of media. This will help boost the self-esteem of teen girls.
According to Psych Central, other effective ways for girls to avoid becoming too self-conscious is by remembering that other people are not thinking of you as much as you think they are, not agreeing with negative thoughts, and accepting who and what they are.
