In today's society, young people are very worried about their appearance. The United Nations defines “youth” as being between the ages of 15 and 24. This age group has many different influences from many directions that affect how they feel about their appearance, including the media, peer pressure, parents, and trying to fit in at school or at work. Although it is good to take care of yourself and your appearance, many young people these days take it too far. This obsession can lead to health problems, negative peer pressure and social problems, and poor behavior that results in poor choices. One of the implications of being too concerned with appearance among young people is that many health problems can arise from pursuing a certain idea. of what a person should look like. Every day in the media, young people receive ideas about what they should look like from advertising, television, movies and celebrities. (Skinny Celebrates Health Risk, 2010). Most people agree that the image shown in these places is actually unrealistic and does not show real people in a natural way. This means that when young people set goals for how they want to look, they may have to do things that are not good in order to achieve them. (Brown University, 2014) The most common things are extreme diets and exercise: more and more young people are going on crash diets, fad diets and overexercising to try to lose weight or to build muscle, even those who already have a normal and healthy weight. Such behavior can easily develop into an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa. Some even start smoking or taking drugs to control their weight. Because the ideal they are trying to achieve is often difficult (Kate Moss) or even impossible for humans (e.g. a Barbie doll...... middle of paper......4.Brown University. (2014). Body image. Available: http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/nutrition_&_eating_concerns/body_image.php Last accessed April 10, 2014. .org/self-esteem.htmlDerenne, JL, Beresin EV (2006). “Body image, media and eating disorders” (30): 257-261.Fisher, N. (2014). self-esteem in adolescents. Available: http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/teen-selfesteem-issues-2080.html Last accessed April 10, 2014. Harter, S. 1993. Causes and consequences of low self-esteem. self-esteem in children and adolescents. In Baumeister, RF (Ed.) Self-esteem: the puzzle of low self-esteem (pp. 87-116). ://wellbeing. .rice.edu/bodyimage/. Last seen on April 10. 2014.