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April 17, 2005
New Study Ties Teen Magazines to Suicide
The Sunday Times ran a report on a new Glasgow University study linking teen magazines with rising rates of suicide among girls.
Modern advertising relentlessly attacks girls' body image, leading to low self-esteem and depression.
Here's the beginning of the Sunday Times article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1573008_1,00.html
Teen magazines blamed for rise in girls’ suicide
by Mark Macaskill
Depression and low self-esteem are fuelling a dramatic rise in suicides among teenage girls in Scotland, a government-funded study has revealed.
The suicide rate among young women aged 15-24 has risen more rapidly than in any other group.
The alarming trend is exposed in a study by academics at Glasgow University, which shows that the number of suicides has risen to nearly two a week — a rise of almost 50% over the past 20 years.
Leading academics and children’s campaigners are calling for urgent government action to tackle the problem, which they believe is fuelled by pressure on young women to conform to images of female perfection in teenage magazines.
A recent survey of 2,000 teenage girls in Britain found that 70% dislike their faces and only 8% are happy with their body. Two-thirds think their lives would improve dramatically if they lost weight. Most said they were made to feel bad about their bodies by images of “perfect” celebrities.
Posted by Gary Ruskin at April 17, 2005 08:44 PM
Comments
I have always felt that there was a connection between all the "fashion" magazines and women (teens & adults) feeling that they just aren't good enough - how many grown women have had affairs, divorces and just unhappy relationships becuase they are trying to create what they think from these mags is the perfect lifestyle? I personally have not taken any of these mags serious and did not allow my 2 daughters to subscribe to the teen mags (and I have seen how they have changed since I was a teen) for just this reason - growing up into a healthy person is
hard enough without the advertising schemes of these mags making you think you aren't good enough because you don't have the lifestyle they glamourize or you didn't score the way you think you should on the quizzes. I'm glad to hear someone else has made the connection and maybe it's the beginning of correcting this devastating problem.
Posted by: Ann Muller at April 28, 2005 06:48 AM
I think that teen magazines are good. Especially Seventeen because they have girls of all body sizes in in and have great real life stories that you can really relate to. Not all teen magazines are bad and I do not think that they are what relates to teen suicide.
Posted by: unde*** at May 4, 2005 09:41 AM
"Beauty" magazines have one goal: make the reader feel ugly. "Your hair is ugly." "Your clothes are out of date." "What is that on your face?" "You don't have a boyfriend, do you?" Seventeen and the rest are a collection of ads. The editorial content is the filler, and is there to support the awful messages from the ads.
Posted by: Jim Metrock at May 10, 2005 11:23 AM
If you have ever thought that the woman in the magazine is better looking than you, the magazine has won. It doesn't matter if you buy the product or not. In the end, you have put yourself below a total stranger based on looks.
Posted by: Ant Levi at May 10, 2005 09:17 PM
