Personal Commentary - Teenage and Social Issues

This commentary is in response to the article: “Going Skin Deep" posted below.
The article is about many teenage girls who are too obsessive about their looks and become too fixated on flaws in their appearance.

This occurrence arises due to several reasons.

Firstly, the media gives a very wrong impression about the over-importance of looks, as many popular and successful celebrities and idols are good-looking. This would lead to many teenagers trying to lose weight and doll themselves up to look better as they think that looks will bring them success and popularity. Moreover, they compare themselves to the celebrities, and use the celebrities as a standard for their looks, and thus naturally feel inferior, and start to focus too much on their flaws.

Secondly, peer influence is another factor. Many teenagers make fun of others who are ugly or fat, calling them names and ostracizing them. This would make teenagers want to avoid being fat or ugly, as no one would like to be called names such as ‘fatso’, and sometimes, may lead to certain disorders such as Anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder of a person who has a severe fear of gaining weight.

I completely agree with Miss Celeste Phua, Chairman of the Youth Advolution for Health, who said that "What is most important is taking good care of your body, not feeling bad about how you look." A person’s health is much more important than her looks. Living a healthy and long life as an ugly person, able to go out often and take part in many activities is much better than being a sickly person who is often stricken with illness in bed and dies young, yet looks pretty. Thus, teenagers should not put too much emphasis on their appearances to an extent that they would sacrifice their health to look good.

Moreover, looks are not all that matter. Looks do not last forever, age will soon catch up with a person and they will no longer look as pretty as they used to. A person’s character and upbringing is what truly matters. A person with good character and upbringing would still be more popular than a mean and selfish person, regardless of how much better-looking the latter is than the former. Would you rather have a good-looking friend that treats you like dirt or a friend whose looks are not so pretty but treats you with respect? I believe that the answer is obvious.

To conclude, I hope that teenagers will learn not to be too self-conscious about their looks, and learn to appreciate what truly matters most.