Money Where Your Mouth Is

Jordan Greene

Honolulu, Hawaii  

98-885 Ainanui Loop

Teen Vogue Magazine

4 Times Square

9th Floor

New York, New York 10036

To the Writers, Editors, and Publishers of Teen Vogue Magazine,

I am just one of the millions of customers that enjoy reading Teen Vogue for fashion tips, relationship advice, boy bands to obsess over, and the plentiful coupons embedded in the pages of your magazines (those are greatly appreciated). I have been subscribed to your magazine ever since I started high school and I truly look forward to getting one in the mail every month. However, there is one thing that makes a little uneasy about continuously paying money for your magazine. I realize that the ads in your magazine provide money and profit for your business. Even still, your advertising pages have increased by a significant 8.3% and although the ads are pleasing to the eye, the impact it has on your readers, can be demeaning and cause self consciousness. 70% of teen girls are strongly influenced by what they believe is the ideal body type and most of your ads feature skinny, flawless models. I understand you can’t dictate the subjects that products such as Gap or Abercrombie and Fitch are printing, advertising, and promoting. However when Teen Vogue then prints those images in the magazine, I believe you too are promoting the idea that every successful girl is skinny and flawless. On the other hand, if ads were printed were models with diverse and unique body types were featured, I would believe that Teen Vogue promotes and different body types positively. I also understand that your magazine has articles that encourage loving your body and being happy with your size. Yet, they are only every few issues, where the thin and picture-perfect models can be found in roughly 17% of your magazine. As a film student I also know that glittering generalities is a very popular advertising technique amongst large businesses, especially for makeup and clothing ads. Even still, beauty comes in more forms than just physical attributes, such as how much you weigh. That should absolutely be highlighted to every girl reading.

From personal experience, of one of my closest friends suffering from body images and eating disorders in the past, I feel very strongly about the content in magazines and feel a sense of worry and protectiveness whenever she sees an ad and replies with “I wish I looked like them.”  And with my younger sister approaching teen years in no time, I would like for her to enjoy reading Teen Vogue without worrying about what size she is or if her looks are good enough.

I hope my suggestions are taken into consideration and they did not cause offense to an outstanding company like yourselves. I enjoy reading your magazines, my only objection would be to add diversity to the ads your magazine prints in order to advocate self- love because every girl reading, should feel comfortable and perfect in their own skin.

Sincerely,

Jordan Greene

Lights! Camera! Dissatisfaction? Citations

                                                    Work Cited

 "Famous Self-Harmers". Self-Injury.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 August, 2015.

"One In 12 Teens Commit Self- Harm". NewsComau. N.p. 17 Nov. 2011. Web.
               14 August, 2015

Purington, Amanda, and Janis Whitlock. "Non-Suicidal Self-Injury In The Media.
            " Psycextra Data set (2010): n pag. Self Injury in the media. Cornell Research
               Program 2010.  Web. 12 Aug. 2015.

Sainer, Emine. "A New View of Self-Harm". The Guardian, 17 Oct. 2011. Web.
              12 Aug. 2015

Self-Injury And Eating Disorders". Eating Disorder Hope Rss. N.d. 3 Sept. 2012.
              Web. 10 August 20

 "Teen Health and the Media." Teen Health and the Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2015.

        "Teenagers Most Influenced by Celebrities." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. 

                     12 Aug. 2009. Web. 04 Sept. 2015.        
    

         "Top Reasons Why Teens Try Alcohol and Drugs - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids." 

                    Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2015.

Lights! Camera! Dissatisfaction? Final Draft

Lights! Camera! Dissatisfaction? For decades, the media presentation of an ideal body, personality, and habits has impacted the 99% of American families that have access to media representations in their home (Media and the Adolescent Mind).  This allows for susceptible teens to get sucked into the intoxicating sway of the media.  Recently, the media's portrayal of self- harm seems like cosmopolitan enterprise that has captured the interest of many teens. They are dissatisfied or despondent with themselves and therefore engage in pastimes that have been highlighted, especially in the media.  Today, 1 in 12 adolescents commit self- harm (Kelland, Kate), and with the numbers on the rise, there are many factors in society that impact teens to continue committing self- harm.  Due to the powerful influence of the media, media outlets have popularized self- harm and made it appear pleasurable and sophisticated through their actors, movies, and continuos portrayal of self- harm throughout the years.

Johnny Depp, Demi Lovato, and Christina Ricci, all renowned stars in the spotlight of the media. Although talented and seem to have the “fame and glory” career, all share a dark secret. This trio of celebrities all went through a dark period in their life and turned to self-harm as a release for the pain and emptiness they were feeling. When they “came out” with their self- harm stories, many adolescents were under the impression that self-harm was a starlit, coming of age pursuit.  “When I was angry about "not looking very good" I heated up a lighter and held it to my hand to impress some boys.” Lovato, shared her story through a media interview that received millions of views “On November 1, 2010, Demi entered inpatient treatment for what was said to be an eating disorder and self-injury, according to People.” Another interview that continues to highlight self- harm is the one with Johnny Depp, “In a Talk magazine interview he said, "It was really just whatever [times when he hurt himself]--good times, bad times, it didn't matter. There was no ceremony. It wasn't like 'Okay, this just happened, I have to go hack a piece of my flesh off...". Although teens have been presented with media sources that compel them to commit self- harm, many people say it is not celebrities but an adolescent’s peers that encourage self- harm. Confidently stating a teen is more likely to pick up on habits that their peers participate in, the celebrities don't have a direct interaction effect. Even though peers have a powerful influence on an adolescent, 77% of teens idolize a celebrity while only 28% of teens will give into peer pressure in their adolescent years. “Women's and girls' appearance is frequently commented on: 58 percent of female character's appearance in movies, as did 28 percent in television shows ” (Teen Health and The Media). Therefore, teens are clearly more impressionable by their celebrity role models than peers because of the media representations of perfection. 

Not only have celebrities impacted the choice of adolescents, but so have the movies they have acted in. Movies such as “Girl Interrupted” and  “Secret Cutting”  have emphasized self- harm, when the actors commit self- harm they act like they are enjoying it and it relieves them of their pain and stress they have in their life. The actors also keep their cutting a secret instead of seeking help which is very impressionable to teens. “I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.”  This quote from “Girl Interrupted, stresses the secrecy and powerful effect that self harm has, that if you don’t like yourself, cutting yourself will make that pain go away. A "study found that the amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin" (Teen Health and Media). Although in movies we see teens cutting themselves, we also see teens with eating disorders. Eating disorders are the number one more prominent form of self harm and therefore many think that eating disorders have made self- harm more popular than the media because a lot of teens face bodily challenges even without the media. This may be true except the media has presented more than enough images of what the “perfect body” should look like through models and even through movies. Studies show that before teens commit self-harm, more than half of them search the Internet for how to do cut "safely". Their main source? The media, "girls and boys told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show "Friends" (Teen Health and Media). Since 1 in 4 teens believe in order to be popular of liked they have to be one of the characters in a TV show (Teens Most Influenced by Celebrities), they commit self- harm to escape for the pressure the media imposes on them. 

Ultimately, due to all of the impressionable celebrities and powerful films addressing self harm and making it seem sophisticated teens have taken apart in this dangerous activity. However there wasn’t always such a vast variety of self- harm presented in the media, “Since 1980, references to self-injury have dramatically increased in media venues. The amount of self-injury related content in music, film and news media has skyrocketed and continues to follow a clear upward trend.” (The Media and Self-Harm). In the 1990s, self- harm in the media was very rare but over a 5 year span in the 21st century, there were 1,750 cases of self injury being portrayed in the media. The “media plays a very important role in spreading ideas about behavior and normalizing unusual or rare behaviors.” Most teens will pick up habits and ideas they see through the media. These are ideas are spread through an idea called social contagion in which ideas and or behaviors can spread through a population unintentionally just like a disease or illness. Therefore, a teen that admires or feels a personal connection to the character in a film, usually would be very susceptible to copy the characters conduct, “...media glamorization of suicide, violence, and other unhealthy behaviors are particularly dangerous for vulnerable teens.”  Although there are many other contributors to self harm such as illicit drug use which 27.2% of teens are involved with. They stick themselves with dirty needles, and sniff dangerous substances just to get high. However, many teens have tried drugs for the first time because they’ve seen it in the movies, "Forty-seven percent of teens agreed that movies and TV shows make drugs seem like an OK thing to do" ( Top 8 Reasons why Teens Try Alcohol and Drugs). All in all, any form of self- harm can be traced back to a media source being responsible for an adolescents dangerous actions.

Whether a teen wants to fit in, they are depressed, or have trouble in life, they find their escape through self- harm to feel a powerful relief or escape from the outside world. These ideas grown in the young minds of impressionable teens have been planted by the powerful influence of media through movies and celebrities and left a harmful effect on the teens. In the long run, almost all victims of self harm have permanent self esteem issues that can prevent them from adapting to new situations, their communication skills, and forming healthy relationships. Each day the impact of the media is getting stronger and more suggestible adolescents will fall victim to the threatening behaviors the media can portray. Therefore, producers and directors should not only consider how far they would go to fashion an engaging movie and ponder the effect these films will have on possible viewers.  Just like you should think before you say, you should think before you let something dangerously powerful loose that has such a powerful effect.