Girls are under more pressure than ever to look a certain way. They are suffering from many influences, such as the thin-ideal media, but also by personal factors, their family, their friends, their school and cultural factors.

To many girls, peer acceptance and approval is very important, so they have extreme attention to influences and social messages. They live in a world where their identities are not formed by long-term education and career, but rather by their consumer choices.

Girls are also targeted by the media, who provide social body image ideals through advertisements, music videos, and most importantly, magazines. These thin-ideal 'teenzines' play on young women's insecurities about their appearance, lowering self-esteem. The teenzines work by intensifying feminine characteristics through advertisements on cosmetics and clothing. In fact, there are many ads on breast augmentation, body alteration, cosmetic surgery and weight-altering. Women magazines have about 10.5 times more ads and articles about weight loss than men's magazines. Furthermore, fashion models weigh 23% than the average female, yet this weight is perceived to be normal by the media.