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Transylvania comes to Wilkes-Barre, as Little Theatre presents ‘Young Frankenstein’

Class Reunion Notices

<p>Did you ever find yourself looking in the mirror and thinking, &#8220;Am I supposed to look like this?&#8221;</p><p>It could be your size, the way you style your hair, wear your makeup or the way you dress. Media seem to provide us with examples of how these things should be done. All around us, images of airbrushed people with perfect hair and size-2 bodies silently tell us that we are not living the right way. We get in the line at the grocery store with a cart full of ice cream, cookies and frozen pizza and are instantly reminded by the magazines surrounding us that the cookie lifestyle will not lead to the &#8220;perfect beach body.&#8221;</p><p>I could speak from experience that the perfect beach body is not worth the struggle to achieve. A few years ago, I broke down and listened when those flawless models and celebrities told me to change my life for the better. I stopped eating everything I loved. I spent my free time running or at the gym, instead of with loved ones. My daily motivation to be thin was not hard to come by; I simply turned on the television, skimmed a magazine or scrolled through my Twitter feed. Finally, I lost a great deal of weight, fit into a size 0 and was completely unhappy.</p><p>It certainly was not easy to think of stopping when, all around me, I was praised for shedding those pesky extra pounds. I remember seeing posts on Instagram asking rhetorical questions like, &#8220;Would you rather a slice of pizza or a thigh gap?&#8221; Seriously, why did the concept of a &#8220;thigh gap&#8221; even start? The people falling for this fallacy do not seem to realize that to achieve this they have to seriously deprive their bodies.</p><p>Although many organizations are trying to combat this vision of beauty as only external, statistics show many people are still negatively influenced by accepting this ideal. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, body dissatisfaction is also seen in men, especially young adults, who are shown celebrities with toned, muscular bodies.</p><p><a href="https://www.justsayyes.org/" target="_blank">Just Say Yes</a>, an organization that strives to empower students and educators, said that teens are surrounded by photos of what is supposedly the ideal body. This airbrushed model, however, weighs 23 percent less than the average woman. Sixty-nine percent of girls in fifth through 12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. ANAD also mentioned that only 5 percent of women naturally have the body type most often portrayed in the media.</p><p>The average American woman is 5-feet, 4-inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, whereas the average American model is 5-feet, 11-inches and 117 pounds. Most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women, according to the West Virginia Department of Education.</p><p>The smiling faces on these images make it seem like to be truly happy, one should look like the models.</p><p>Happiness is relative, and it should not be dependent on looking like a Photoshopped model in a magazine. When looking at those so-called ideal women now, after gaining 35 pounds and my sanity back, I put the images aside for a moment and think: &#8220;Am I happy? Am I doing what I love to do? Am I loved?&#8221;</p><p>More often than not, my answer is &#8220;yes.&#8221;</p><p>Learn to listen to those who have your best interest in mind, instead of the voice you hear from the cover of Cosmopolitan. Instead of thinking about what you do not have &#8211; a thigh gap, or perfect hair, whatever it might be &#8211; consider what you do have. You can sing, draw, run, dance, play a sport, write, laugh, live.</p><p>I encourage every reader to cherish what you have and who you are, and to take those models for what they are: a two-dimensional magazine cover.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Holly Ference</p><p>Guest columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Holly Ference is the web content graduate assistant at Misericordia University in Dallas Township, working regularly on social media and marketing. She has a bachelor&#8217;s degree in communications from The University of Scranton and is pursuing a master&#8217;s degree in organizational management from Misericordia University.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Holly Ference: Pursuit of ‘ideal’ body type can leave you unhealthy and unhappy