Young western women have significantly decreased their weight in the last two decades. They have put more importance on being thin instead of being healthy. The number of women who are setting goals of becoming super skinny has gone up. The beliefs to loose weight to be appealing to the public are caused by the media, current society values, and the fashion industry. The emphasis on being thin can lead to lower self-esteem of adolescents, eating disorders in teenagers, and the exploitation of young women in the fashion industry.

The media is overflowing with advertisements of products targeted at adolescent females, which are advertised by thin women. Usually the merchandise being sold are makeup and perfume products, bath products, or weight loss foods and programs. The women in these commercials are shown as pretty and skinny, with a flat stomach, clear skin, and great hair. The teenage girls who view these advertisements compare their own body with the bodies of these pretty women. Sarah Murnen, a body-image researcher and professor of psychology at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, agrees that “the promotion of the thin, sexy ideal in our culture has created a situation where the majority of girls and women don't like their bodies. And body dissatisfaction can lead girls to participate in very unhealthy behaviors to try to control weight.” This negative influence by the media can cause teenage girls to feel that if they are not super skinny, they will be really ugly and unwanted. Soon these young women turn to starving themselves and puking in order to loose weight and look like the sexy images shown by the media.

Anorexia nervosa, starving oneself, having low weight and distressing over being fat, and bulimia, ejecting food by vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics, or by limitless exercise, are two eating disorders in which adolescents are becoming engaged in order to be thin. Recently, these two eating disorders have been gaining popularity with preteens as well. The National Institute of Mental Health calculates that “1 percent of adolescent girls suffer from anorexia and that an additional 2 to 3 percent are bulimic. (Girls are the primary victims of this disease, although the incidence among boys is on the rise.)”. Some teens are also teased and bullied by their peers about their weight, even though they are completely healthy. These teenagers are pushing themselves beyond their limits to achieve that skinny body society today believes to be attractive.

Young women are attacked everyday by magazines and TV shows displaying thin models. Most girls do not know that these models are naturally lean. The fashion industry hires these thin models to present their designers' clothes. The editor in chief of Glamour magazine, Cindi Leive, suggests that "you do see the occasional model on the runway looking like she should go from the fashion show to the hospital. You hear stories of girls who come to model and are collapsing because they haven't eaten in days. Any responsible model booker will tell you they turn away girls who get too thin." However, some people who hire models do not show much concern about the models' being underweight, they only care about focusing attention on the clothes. At the same time, magazines show photos of unnaturally skinny women, which young girls opt to attain. They have no idea that these photos were retouched, acne and spots were removed, the shape of selected body parts were altered, and other so-called flaws were covered up.

Girls are dissatisfied with their weight, teenagers are hurting their body by starving themselves or throwing up their food, and models in the fashion industry are being mistreated because of the significance placed on becoming super skinny. The media, present-day society views, and the fashion industry are portraying underweight bodies as the ideal to strive for. This modern preference of thinness must be halted so less adolescents in the future will be assaulted.

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