Celebrity weight obsession
Thursday 1 February 2007
The celebrity magazine market is one of the biggest in the world, with millions of readers worldwide grabbing the latest bit of showbiz news they can.
One thing all the magazines have got in common is an obsession with the way stars look. n2k reader Nathalie, 17, tells us why she's sick of reading about what the stars weigh.
Worrying messages
"I buy on average around three magazines a week, sometime the glossy ones and sometimes the trashy celeb ones. Thousands of girls my age do the same and I'm a bit worried about some of the messages these magazines are portraying to girls like me.
Celebrity skin
The other week, two of the magazines I bought had covers that showed famous female celebrities in their bikinis.
One cover had huge headlines that said 'Celebs get fat too!' and showed girls who I thought were quite a normal size where the other promised to reveal the diet secrets of well-known stars and had pictures of some really skinny famous women.
Unflattering photos
I can't remember the last time I saw a girl who was overweight presented in a positive way. Charlotte Church is always being mentioned as a 'real women' but they still show really unflattering photos of her eating or drinking.
Some of the really skinny stars are being portrayed as having an ideal figure but to me they look as if they have eating disorders.
Diet dedication
I eat really healthily and play sports twice a week but I still have hips, breasts and a bottom.
Some of the girls at school worry me because they don't seem to eat or if they do they're always talking about what people like Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie like to eat and what new diet they've read about in a magazine.
Bad influence?
I don't think magazines understand how much people, especially girls, look to them for help and advice and when they try to tell us that super skinny girls with bones showing through their bikinis are normal they make us feel inadequate.
I am just thankful that I have a healthy mind and aren't too influenced by what they say.
I'm not buying it
I am going to stop buying a magazine if it mentions anything about a fat/ skinny celebrity woman or how to go on a celebrity diet. I don't want my mind to be poisoned and I think girls should be happy with who they are and not wish an eating disorder on themselves."
Over to you
Is Nathalie right? Are you influenced by magazines? Tell us what you think on our contact form or drop us an email.
