Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty

Today society has distorted what beauty is and it has driven individuals, especially girls, to an image of perfection that is not possible. What has driven girls to compare themselves to others and find themselves not as beautiful as others? Media.

Media has severely distorted the image of women by the pictures posted in magazines, in advertisements and on television. You see the ultra-thin models who are usually around 5' 10" and 110 lbs opposed to the average woman who is 5'4" and 145 lbs according to Walden Behavioral Care. With the images floating in society, it is no wonder that eating disorders seem to have become more common.

YouTube actually provides a video by Dove called Dove Evolution that shows how companies manipulate pictures to portray perfection. They have also started a campaign called the Campaign for Real Beauty that provides discussion forums, interactive self-esteem builders, a facebook group, video's on girls stories of their self-esteem issues, videos of pressures girls feel from society and other such links that are used to tackle the issue of self-esteem and body image.

I feel that this is a great start on getting girls to realize that they are not alone in the struggles they face on body image pressures and self-esteem issues. It is an dilemma that many girls face at sometime in their lives and often times they do not have the tools available or confidence to talk about it. This campaign will hopefully change that.

Girls have to remember that beauty varies and it not this thin figure that we are used to seeing. Everyone is beautiful in their unique ways and it's about time we all realized it and started to believe it.