It gets to you after awhile that you're a size 10 and they're a size four. Fitness and losing fat topped the men's list, Simon-Rossetto says. According to research cited by the Seattle-based Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Inc., the average American woman is 5 feet 4 inches and 140 pounds. The average American fashion model stands 5 feet 11 inches and weighs 117 pounds. Young people ages 12 to 19 make up roughly 11 percent of the U.S. population.
Teenagers now have more money of their own to spend than ever before.
You can't blame the media for everything, says Michael Wood, vice president of Unlimited. Magazine publishers are trying to hook the next generation, but their social conscience has grown in the last few years. It's very refreshing. Magazines are featuring girls of all shapes and sizes and focusing on issues such as education and drugs, he says. There was virtually no evidence supporting Wood's point in a Record review of current editions of five popular magazines that target teenage girls and young women.