The relentless number of images creating an unhealthy and unrealistic portrayal of women can ultimately be deadly. The fashion and make-up industries spend billions each year in an attempt to convince women that everything needs to be fixed, from eyebrows to toenails. These twisted beauty standards are promoted from babyhood through adulthood. Young girls are given glamorous heroines early on to idolize. Disney's animated female lead characters, such as Pocohantas and the Little Mermaid, are drawn with large breasts, tiny waists, and long slender legs, despite their youthful ages.
Adolescent girls are a growing target for advertisers', television's and movies' harmful messages.
Millions of women and girls have eating disorders, many which begin in adolescence. In addition to promoting an unnatural standard of thinness, the media are finding news ways to shape young women's images. The company pulled the ad after NOW members and leaders protested the suggestion of sexual harassment and rape. A recent issue of Teen Magazine featured the diary of a teenager who had a nose job for cosmetic reasons alone. Television and movie characters are almost all super thin and fall into harmful stereotypes.