BuzzFeed

If the majority of high school athletes were subscribed to a magazine (or read their friend’s) that regularly talked about how much happier they’d be if they did steroids, and how much better they’d play, and how much more popular they’d be, and how much hotter of girls would like them…could the magazine potentially play a role in their steroid use then? She said she wasn’t blaming Seventeen. What she said was that the images portrayed in the magazine helped contribute to the problem. The idea behind the exercise and weight loss articles isn’t, “If you’re overweight and want to be healthier, try this.” It’s “If you want to be skinnier so guys will like you more and you can wear a smaller size dress to prom, try this.” THAT’S the problem. Not to mention that the girls in the accompanying photos are usually rather skinny, which adds to the idea that you don’t need to be overweight to need to lose weight.

I agree with nearly everything you said, especially the last part, BUT Saying that ANYTHING that causes someone to want to lose weight, because losing weight is a good thing, is a really dangerous attitude. People should lose weight because they want to, or need to, not for other people. They should do it slowly and in a healthy way.

she never said being overweight was healthy. When you’re overweight at an unhealthy level, yes, it is good to lose weight. But to lose weight for the wrong reasons, psychological ones, where you’re doing it because you feel like you have no control over your life IS NOT healthy. You’re not doing it because you want to be healthy you’re doing it because you’re unhappy and that will most likely take you overboard to lose too much weight, once again making you unhealthy. Being over and underweight are equally unhealthy.