Every day, thousands of young women and teens are faced with the pressures of matching beauty standards of today. The “Beauty Standards” of this generation, are defined as having perfect teeth, clear skin, flawless hair, perfect makeup, and all while fitting into a size two.
Media uses the advertising of makeup to lure young women and teens into buying their products to make money. Although they make many profits from this, they don’t realize they’re slowly building up the insecurities of teens and shutting down self – esteem. Most television shows and movies nowadays use adult actors and actresses to portray teenagers, creating standard
s on what high school teens should look like. The term “Westernized Beauty” is an example of standardizing beauty. An example of this term being used is when social media says that “light eyes are prettier,” and “blondes are preferred over brunettes.”
Models around the world are portrayed as “human Barbie dolls” because of their small figures, perfect hair and flawless skin, but, they’re being photoshopped into perfection. Instagram and Snapchat are perfect examples of apps that teens use for photoshopping pictures to make themselves look better. Celebrities such as the Kardashians glamorize the idea of makeup and body image and represent beauty in a harmful way. While kids are listening to their “beauty hacks,” they should be following in the footsteps of Alessia Cara, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé and Melanie Martinez instead. Each singer wrote a song that represented what they thought real beauty was. Cara wrote the song “Scars to Your beautiful,” Keys wrote “Superwoman,” Beyoncé wrote “Pretty Hurts,” and Martinez wrote “Mrs. Potato Head.” These songs share a message of female empowerment and feminine rights to inspire women alike.
Social media is the main target in standardizing beauty for teens today. Every time a female or young woman logs onto her Instagram, she’s challenged with the stress of posting “perfect selfies.” The 
“perfect selfie” is defined as wearing tons of makeup, having no imperfections and a great smile with perfect teeth. When a woman sees other girls being portrayed as “perfect,” she thinks that’s what she should look like, which then makes her mind start to overthink and have second thoughts about her own beauty, as her self – esteem slowly starts to decrease. Each year, new beauty techniques or fashions trends come up in media, which make teens and young women struggle to keep up with all the new fads, which can lead to anxiety and depression.
Women should be allowed to have freedom in their own bodies and love themselves with or without makeup. Beauty Standards have become a huge trend around the world, but for all the wrong reasons. Girls should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies without fear of being mocked, or judged by fellow peers.
Photo Courtesy of Becomegorgeous.com
Photo Courtesy of Toxel.com
Photo Courtesy of BeyonceVevo
