When I was about 15, I decided that I hated myself. I didn’t look like Britney Spears, and I knew I never would. I adopted a distorted body image and convinced myself that the only way anyone would ever like me was if I was skinny. It became tough to look in the mirror.According to the National Eating Disorder Association, 80 percent of girls and women are thinking and feeling like I did in high school at any given time, with about 11 million of them suffering from one or more eating disorders. There is absolutely no reason any girl or woman should be feeling like this, and the majority of the problem stems from the media messages we are bombarded with everyday. We can’t all look like Kate Moss. We aren’t meant to. We all deserve to feel good about ourselves, and not feel the need to starve in order to feel adequate.What I find hard to understand is how we allow this dysfunctional cycle to go on. The media has continued to push an unrealistic body image that uses guidelines of impossible standards to promote something virtually unattainable to the everyday girl. And it’s not changing. The average American female is 5 feet 4 inches, 140 pounds. The average American actress/model is 5 feet 11 inches, 117 pounds. What are the movie and TV industries trying to say- that the average female cannot be beautiful?The different forms of media are collectively the most prominent force present in our society, and carry an influence unequal to any other. Each medium has a responsibility individually, and as a whole, to realize their power and use it to promote the interest of the public, and not solely the money-hungry interests of their own. Some people argue that it is a female’s responsibility to educate herself about the false body image idealized by the media, or that only those with existing self-esteem issues exhibit long-term effects to harmful messages. But the way I understand it, anyone can be told that media messages are nothing more than false illusions of what is supposed to be ideal or “perfect,” and in a way I believe we all know this to be true. But knowing this to be true, and understanding the severity of the impact of media messages are two totally different things. After all, the media are experts at pitching their messages beneath the point of conscious perception, making it hard to be completely aware of all we take in.The media claim to be integrating a more varying body image, but how are they really doing this? Is it through Jennifer Lopez, who has been said to have a more realistic body, but is still thinner than the average women? Or is it through those Victoria’s Secret ads with the stick-thin model promoting “curves?” I don’t see it, do you?I don’t know how to completely alleviate the problem, but something needs to be done. The media need to present a better assortment of body images, and find a way to integrate more positive messages directed towards women, concerning the female body. While the media probably aren’t going to experience a great awakening any time soon, women and girls can do something for themselves in the meantime. Don’t consume that media that makes you devalue your self and your body, no woman deserves to feel that way. We were all meant to be different and unique, and that’s something that makes every woman beautiful. After all, it’s up to us to come together and show the world that we’re not going to sit back and base our bodies on what someone else tells us is acceptable.