As i was studying, i was shamelessly regressing and watching The Disney Channel and Nick. It made me feel super old but the shows were actually funny and entertaining to me. Sometimes the cheesy acting can be a little over the top but hey, cant blame them...it attracts the tweens...and me! (:
I channel surfed between ICarly, Shake it Up, Good Luck Charlie, So Random, and Victorious. Every show has gorgeous teenage girls who can sing, dance and have a rockin' 90 lbs bod at 17 or so. For years and years i secretly envied these talented girls with almost no body fat on them. one of my biggest insecurities have always been my arms and i would always watch these shows and think, "man, why cant i have normal arms like that?"
These TV shows and pop culture have brainwashed me to think this is how every girl should look like:
flawless skin, amazing bone structure, naturally long lashes, and arms the size of twigs. Now don't get me wrong, Victoria Justice IS gorrrrgeous...but then again she is also the exception. If you watch too many TV shows or movies and read fashion magazines and blogs on the daily, you start to get influenced by these images. It starts by wanting the lipstick they're wearing, then the shoes and clothes and eventually you get down to the body shape and figure which are mostly bone-thin-skinny body figures.
Lucky for me, I keep it all in my mind. I know I will never have the same body build as Miss.Victoria Justice, so I have learned to accept it and admire from afar. I haven't felt the need to take this jealousy to a new level because well...I just love food too much so there was no way I could ever try to be anorexic. I have really bad gag reflexes and could never try to make myself throw up so bulimia was never an option for me either. I tried the whole salad a meal thing but my stomach wants what it wants, and it does not want rabbit food.
Unfortunately there are others who aren't as lucky as me and have taken their body consciousness to those levels.
Now, So Random is a spin off of Sonny with a Chance. It has basically the same cast minus Demi Lovato. As I was watching I noticed how Tiffany Thornton had arms like me and seemed like she gained weight but she still LOOKED amazing. Then I thought about Demi and how she went from Disney star to "another child star in rehab". We all know that Miss. Lovato has had her shares of ups and downs this past year and it shows.
I definitely do not think her "weight gain" is so terrible. I think she looks GREAT! shes embracing her curves and flaunting what shes got! I never really followed what happened to her and why but after whatever she has been through, showing up in public in that dress is a huge step forward from being ashamed, depressed, and bulimic.
I came to the realization that Disney took this as a wake up call, that not every girl is built the way Victoria Justice or Selena Gomez are. I remember growing up watching Lizzie McGuire and how they had the one episode where Miranda had an anorexic phase and Raven in Thats' so Raven was curvy and proud. And that was great and all but for one of Disneys stars to step forward and announce that she has a problem is completely different than someone just acting it. I feel that they strayed away from that for a while and latched on to the child star fad of hannah montana and skinny young brunettes.
With all the Disney stars with tainted reputations, I hope they will at least take this lesson and have absolutely no tolerance for another one of their child stars to want to abuse their bodies in the same way. Disney not only has to campaign a healthy lifestyle, they need to show their young viewers that every body is different and that is what makes us all beautiful.
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