Today, women are expected to hold standards of beauty. The type of body in style right now is an hourglass shape with large breasts, large lips, a little nose, and a tiny stomach. Women strive for this kind of body, and even use plastic surgery to achieve it. Young girls see people with these fake bodies everywhere, like in public, on television, and on social media, and believe they need to look this way.

The girls should not feel this pressure to look this way. The bodies they often see that they desire are fake or technologically altered to fit perfect beauty standards. They should feel comfortable with their own bodies and flaws.

Women with these perfect bodies and facial features often do not look like that naturally. According to www.usatoday.com, there were nearly 291,000 breast augmentations and 235,000 liposuction surgeries completed in the year 2016. According to www.plasticsurgery.org, the amount of tummy tucks, breast augmentations, and liposuction surgeries went up from 2016 to 2017. With these many surgeries occurring, especially by actors or people of importance that serve as role models, it is hard for girls to not want to look this way.

Another way women make themselves look good on camera and social media is makeup. The www.nytimes.com claims that Sephora, a beauty supply store known for their makeup and skincare, had their profits rise by 6% from 2016 to 2017, with a $7.3 billion total sales. Also, it is now very popular on social media sites, such as Youtube and Instagram, to post videos of yourself putting on makeup and promoting the sales of certain brands. It is clear that the women look completely different after they do their makeup then before. Girls see these women with flawless skin, perfect contoured cheekbones, large lips, and long eyelashes and think they want to look just like that. These girls believe they need makeup to achieve levels of beauty.

People will always agree that women do these things to make themselves better, but they may not feel that it is a bad thing. Some feel that women should be held to a certain standard. Even those women who do not believe this will still continue to strive to meet this standard because they don’t want to fall behind. They depend on these standards to do things such as get a job, become a model, or find a life partner.

It is impossible to stop women from completing plastic surgery or wearing pounds of makeup, but it is possible to make girls feel comfortable with the way they look. A way to do this is to have women who do “fall under” the “beauty standards” serve as role models, whether they be actresses playing important roles in movies or a person in the community. Also, girls should be taught that they do not need to look a certain way to get boys to like them or to be popular.

All body types and shapes should be considered beautiful and unique. Girls who see women with these “perfect” bodies may want to be like them. They need to be taught that who they are  just as beautiful, and what is on the inside is what really matters.