Home

Steamboat Springs teenagers face a whole different set of pressures than many teens when it comes to body image. Not only is there pressure to be thin, there is also pressure to be fit.

When the Teen Style staff met last week to discuss eating disorders and teens' relationship to food, they agreed that anorexia and bulimia might not be as big of a problem here as it is in some communities. Instead, unhealthy body images come out among Steamboat teenagers in the gym, where girls obsessively work out.

Because in Steamboat, skinny girls may be judged if they aren't involved in sports, said Josie Pacana, 14: "You don't want to be seen sucking it up on the bunny hill."

"Eating disorders aren't really an issue here because this is such a nutrition-conscious town," 13-year-old Chrissy Ford said.

"But you still see the celebrities on TV and even though you know that a lot of it is fake, it still affects you," 13-year-old Miriam Pensack said. "At the middle school, you get made fun of for being too skinny or for being too fat. You can't win."

The more they talked, the more the girls decided that things had gotten worse in recent years regarding our nation's obsession with beauty and the perfect body. They mentioned the current TV shows: "Nip/Tuck," "Extreme Makeover," "The Swan" and "I Want a Famous Face."

"And there are all those advertisements on TV for machines that will help you get the perfect stomach in days," said Paula Ninger, 13.

A lot of how you look and how you see yourself as a teenager depends on your parents, the girls agreed.

"Moms who are critical about their own weight will also want their daughters to be perfect," 16-year-old student Suzie Ford said. "I think there is probably a lot more going on with eating disorders at the high school, but no one knows about it."

The girls' first advice for helping their peers form healthier self images was to stop watching television and avoid fashion magazines.

"To stay confident in yourself you need to focus on other things," Pensack said.