As such, she is once again linking the notion of skinny to fashionable. Everyone in "Young Hollywood," as the magazine refers to the younger celebrities as skinny and this then reinforces a need for young girls to also be skinny, at all costs. When young women are looking to their favorite stars and singers they want to replicate that look, and often many take on unhealthy habits in order to get that skinny that fast.
Victoria Justice is not the first child star to embed these types of messages into images. No, many child actresses have felt the pressure to be skinny, and have thus internalized the societal demand and reproduce it for their own fans to follow. Take for example the case of former Nickelodeon actress Amanda Bynes. According to one recent post on the Huffington Post's Celebrity page, the actress has continuously admitted to her fans on Twitter that she has struggled with keeping up the ideal weight that is demanded of her by Hollywood. The page itself has images of her as a teen and as an adult, all glamorizing her skinny waistline and small features. Despite the fact that she is 5'8," Bynes recently tweeted that she was still trying to loose weight, with a target goal of 100 lbs (Huffington Post, 2013). This is extremely underweight for a woman of her height. The actress has even admitted to having trouble fighting an eating disorder over the years. When young teens look at her success and correlate it with her use of unhealthy dietary choices, they may think that anorexia is a good choice for getting skinny enough to be the next big star, like Bynes. In this, when celebrities seem to go along with the demands for thinness, the influence only gets stronger.
Unfortunately, this is a trend that has been well documented by scholars....
Through thorough research into media messages, many have come to believe that there are clear undertones in media images that direct women to want to be smaller. Essentially, "scholars have long indicated fashion magazines, movies, television and advertising for their advocacy of disordered eating" (Thompson & Heinberg, 1999, p 340). As such, the cover of Teen Vogue here is no exception. It does taunts women about how imperfect they are and how important it is to do anything to get to that ideal image of perfection. Such media images like the one being examined here "blur the boundaries between fictionalized ideal and reality, and often the subtextual, if not the overt, message is that one need only comply with provided guidelines to achieve the ideal" (Thompson & Heinberg, 1999, p 340). The message here is strong. This trend is essentially the "internalization of societal pressures regarding prevailing standards of attractiveness," (Thompson & Heinberg, 1999, p 339). With media continuing to use visual imagery to send subconscious messages about weight, many fear how it may impact the vulnerable demographics of young female teens across the country.
References
Huffington Post. (2013). Amanda Bynes eating disorder: Actress shares yet another worrisome tweet. HuffPost Celebrity. Web. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/amanda-bynes-eating-disorder-tweet_n_3019913.html#slide=more250437
Kirsh, Steven J. (2010). Media and Youth: A Developmental Perspective. John Wiley & Sons.
Thompson, J. Kevin & Heinberg, Leslie J. (1999). The media's influence on body image disturbance and eating disorders: We've reviled them, now can we rehabilitate them? Journal of Social Issues, 55(2), 339-353.
