The causes and effects of fashion
Fashion is a factor that is spreading quickly among teenagers. It
is nice to watch fashion shows and runways and get fashion ideas for our daily
life style. However, the most common effects of fashion on teenagers now days are
insecurities, eating disorders and most of all the idea of changing who they
are. Those are some of the effects of the fashion runways displayed on social
media.
In 2015, we have access to almost
every social media and it is easy to watch the growth of fashion. Watching run
ways from top industries like Givenchy, Balmain, Versace, and Victoria's Secret
etc. inspires young girls to become the same as the models on the shows. High
quality fashion shows usually have models that are really tall and most of them
are actually even underweight. There have been magazine covers of these models
that have been photo shopped to make these models look extraordinary. Young teenagers,
who watch these models while growing up, get the idea of how to be “perfect”
like these models.
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| Photo taken by Cyrll Attlas |
Insecurity is something that has
become quite popular between teens these days. Girls and boys at this age want
to fit in the society and be better, but when they see someone better than
themselves it causes insecurities in these teens. There will always be someone
better than you or someone who can be really perfect on the outside yet have a
really ugly personality. We need to teach our generation and the coming
generations the importance of being healthy physically and emotionally and not
try to compete with photo shopped models. The insecurity caused by the
underweight and photo shopped pictures of models also cause teens to have
eating disorders.
When a teen watches a Victoria’s
Secret model on the run way, he/she gets the idea of being just perfect and
likable like that model without knowing if the person is actually in a healthy
weight. Losing extra weight from your body and being healthy is a good thing;
however, it is not something that can be achieved in a week or two. When a
teenager or in most cases even adults watch these perfect looking models, they
get an idea of losing weight. However they just want to lose within a week or
two and they pick the easy way of losing weight which is really low calorie
diets. Low calorie diets are diets that cut down on the calories mostly around
700 to 800 calories a day. Going from a high or normal daily recommended
calorie diet to such low calorie diets can cause major issues in the body. If a
teenager cuts their daily calorie diet from 2000 calories a day to 700 calories,
chances are that the teen might face major issues like gallstones. Gallstone is
a common and major side effect of eating disorder along with short term effects
like nausea, diarrhea, fatigue and weakness. Another side effect that these low
calorie diets have is that they help you lose water from your body instead of
fat which will come back doubled in size. Eating disorders can be really
dangerous especially for teenagers. If teens stick to such low calorie diets,
then they can face many problems in their adulthood.
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/germani/6155820093
(picture has been cropped) |
Last but not least is teenagers
changing who they are to be like these “perfect” models and spending thousands
of dollars to change their looks. For example, now days many teenagers are
being inspired by Kylie Jenner’s looks. Seeing Kylie Jenner model for big
fashion companies like Balmain, teenagers pick interest into changing
themselves to look like that model/celebrity. Mostly it starts by lip fillers,
many teens and adults are seeing Kylie’s plump lips and as a result they are
spending thousands of dollars to get lip fillers to achieve the exact looks of
her. However, some of these teenagers change their image in order to fit in
with the new trends of the society which causes them to change physically and
emotionally.
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| https://www.flickr.com/photos/disneyabc/15838191216 |
Physical changes like lip fillers, face lifter, breast enhancer
etc. is done to be in the competition of new fashion trends. Also emotional
changes like stress and depression take place.
Fashion trends is something that cannot
be totally stopped or vanished from social media however, there are ways to
make it suitable for everyone. If top fashion industries like Versace,
Victoria’s Secret and Balmain etc. start using models of every size and shape,
then insecurities and eating disorder problems can become in control. Also
using real pictures of the models that have not been photo shopped should be
used in order to let the audience see the real beauty and flaws of the model.
