WARNING: content in this OP-ED is distorted by socially constructed ideas of ‘beauty’

Depression is a side effect of many illnesses. It can be considered a physical and emotional problem. This disease has developed rapidly throughout the course of the years, every time attacking more victims as time goes by. Depression is described as a feeling of severe despair, and misery or sadness. It is said to affect everyone for a short period of time. This fact is untrue. People who suffer from depression can have it for a long period of time. I believe no one can describe the feeling of depression, it doesn’t have a right or wrong because everyone feels differently and takes emotions in distinct ways. 

Depression can originate from many different places. It can come from terminal diseases, or unregulated thyroid problems, even from family issues. This article is not made to discuss the medical implications that depression causes, nor to emphasize on the medical/personal origins of depression. Although it does take into account, how depression is linked to social conformity and standards of beauty, which is probably one of the most common starting points of depression in teenagers. We can sometimes not see it, and even ignore it but what affects and hurts us the most both physically and mentally are the unreachable, unrealistic, and impossible beauty standards.

In our daily lives we see pictures of models, actresses, and influential people in the covers of magazines and social media. In these pictures their bodies can be compared to finger size proportions. Skinny role models displayed to young girls, teenagers, and even older woman give a false illusion about the reality in which we live in. Not only can we predict the serious health problems these people have, but also the effects it causes within the audience they are exposed to.

Anorexia and bulimia are two of the many eating disorders our planet has been attacked by. They both consist in starving the body, feeding the mind with distorted images, and killing the soul. These are problems that have developed due to society's image of beauty. Problems that not only end the life of many young women around the world but also contribute the the standards of " health/beauty" we have created. Only we are to blame for creating these barriers and personally handing self destructing weapons to one another.

The distortion of  the words health and healthy have revolutionized the way our bodies are displayed for societies critique. We used to consider a healthy, fit, unique body beautiful, but now the standards of beauty are limited to skin wrapped around bones. Campaign ads such as the highly criticized Victorias Secret "The Perfect Body"  portray unachievable bodies that only about 5% of the population have. The controversy behind this add not only deals with the image that is being shown to women all over the world, affecting their confidence. It is unrealistic and also judges the different body types pointing out that the "perfect one" is the skinny one.

The world around us is being consumed by bad marketing techniques, not only to the human eye but also to the human sanity. Images, ads, publicity now a days relate with society's standard of beauty even though sometimes we can't perceive it. The doll that we grew up with, Barbie is a raw example of this issue. A doll with very thin and skinny proportions, with higher than normal height, perfect face, skin, overall man made doll creates a body image young girls are expected to follow. As Barbie is constantly active in every young girl’s life it only raises the first beauty standard girls are exposed to. Later on in our teenage years we see commercials of Victorias Secret models, all weighing less than 40 kilos. Along with models, famous actress also exhibit the image of skinny, and demonstrate how their life has changed to better since they became thinner. We have been ruled by a race that cares more about physical appearance than anything else, a society that is willing to risk the lives of others in order to preserve the guidelines imposed by it, a standard that has corrupted minds, bodies and entire populations.