By: Brogan Frey and Abisola Dosunmu

If you’ve been on social media in the last decade, you’d recognize the constant push and pull for our brains attention, interest, and money. For some, it’s blatant, with the ads pulled from what you’ve liked or previously engaged with, on what you’ve shared or reposted. For others, it’s more subtle, with notifications to get the rush of dopamine into our brains, and the constant and never ending stream of content that keeps us on our phones scrolling (and makes what we’re scrolling through more personalized). It’s all led to an almost dystopian reality, a social epidemic of “perfect” faces and bodies beaming up at us through our screens.

The media is constantly impacting our daily lives. Our society greatly relies on the media to get all or most of our information, and that includes teenagers. According to a 2023 survey, 29% of teens get news from social media everyday, with another 23% getting news from YouTube. And while this is understandable, after all, using social media can help relieve the hardships of navigating through several websites and articles to find one source, this can also be quite harmful. The risks of social media are great. While on social media, people can be exposed to harmful or inappropriate content, dangerous people, they can be cyberbullied, they are at risk for identity theft, and that’s just naming a few. But the largest one that affects so many young people, is the interference with sleep, exercise, homework, or family activities.

If you asked a group of teenagers what the ideal body looked like, could you guess what they’d say? The majority of teenagers that we have asked described a very specific body type for men and women. For women, they said that the ideal body type is extremely thin, much like fashion models. For men, they said that the ideal body is tall and slender, but also muscular and toned. These body types are quite hard to acquire, but many will spend their whole lives trying.

When we look at images in magazines, on tv, or on social media, what we’re seeing isn’t real—it’s all edited and airbrushed to look perfect. These “perfect” bodies set up unrealistic expectations for how both men and women should look. As a result, many people end up spending a fortune on products trying to match these impossible standards. Some go to extremes and develop eating disorders or become ill in their pursuit to resemble the models and influencers they see online.

All of this quickly culminates into self esteem issues, anxiety about your appearance, and eventually body dysmorphic disorder, a condition defined by anxiety about how you look and the things you feel are “wrong” with your body.

Now, this frenzy about one’s appearance isn’t only limited to children and young adults. Anyone can experience this, though it may be more acute in anyone under the age of twenty-one due to the time period adolescents spend on social media affecting their still developing brains.

So, how do we stop this? There are countless resources available online and in schools, aiming to help people who idealize these bodies develop a realistic idea of what bodies are really supposed to look like. There are also several self help options that may not completely eradicate the self esteem issues at once, but will definitely help with time.

1. Take brain breaks – knowing when to take time off of social media is vital to improving your self esteem. Implement that by limiting and scheduling your screen time, and recognizing when to drop the phone.
2. Find what you like about yourself – find things that don’t necessarily include your looks, (like your personality) and capitalize on them. Focus on what you like about yourself, not what you don’t.
3. Appreciate what your body can do – things like laughing, dancing, and making yourself and other people happy are things our bodies do everyday that don’t involve feeling conventionally attractive. Instead of looking at what you feel your body can’t do and feeling insecure, research what your body does everyday to keep you alive.

Below are some resources you can use if you need someone to talk to. A counselor is always available in the counselor’s office, in room 1303. If you need more support, here are a few therapists and counselors in the Twin Cities who specialize in body image:

Norris Vorasane – provides therapy to a diverse range of adult clients, including, but not limited to, BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, military, students, and immigrants.

Dr. Alina Aloma – she is a bilingual Latina psychologist specializing in multicultural, gender, and LGBTQ affirming care.

Anna Stern – she is more interested in who you are than helping you be normal. Antiracist, affirming, social justice oriented and accountable.

For more information, please visit:

• Wronski, Laura . “Common Sense Media|SurveyMonkey Poll: Teen Media Literacy.” SurveyMonkey, www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/common-sense-media-teen-media-literacy/.
• AACAP. “Social Media and Teens.” American Academy of Child and
• Adolescent Psychiatry, Mar. 2018, www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Social-Media-and-Teens-100.aspx.
• “EBSCO Information Services Service Selection Page.” Search-Ebscohost-Com.content.elibrarymn.org, web-p-ebscohost-com.content.elibrarymn.org/pov/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=98a98e4f-e64c-431d-93a0-f4899256877c%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9cG92LWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=pwh&AN=28675178. Accessed 23 May 2024.
• Cleveland Clinic. “How Social Media Can Harm Your Body Image.” Cleveland Clinic, 21 July 2023, health.clevelandclinic.org/social-media-and-body-image. Accessed 23 May 2024.