Imagine. Imagine being an idol for thousands – even millions – being the star in everyone’s eyes, leaving your mark upon the night sky. Perception of a celebrity can be as distorted and varied as fun house mirrors; some make you tall or short, small or big; they misinterpret you in both good and bad ways. Changing your mood, throwing around different colours, twisting and turning never failing to make you laugh or shock you – the media holds the same perception of celebrities. Could there be a better way to describe the sensation that is: Justin Bieber? What does a celebrity mean to you? According to dictionaries, a celebrity is someone who is famous, especially in the entertainment business; to me, a celebrity is nothing but a normal person who has been lucky enough to show their talent to the whole world. Some celebrities make good use of their fame by highlighting many important issues such as self-harm and eating disorders etc., which Demi Lovato, being a victim of them herself, portrays.
On the other hand, someone like Miley Cyrus, known as Hannah Montana has just completely gone downhill. I mean, what’s the point? These celebrities, who influence our society to form itself as it is today, are the ones on who we all have an obsession over. Whether it being Michael Jackson or Justin Bieber – it’s all of them. Elvis Presley is an iconic example. You cannot talk about music without mentioning him. Millions loved him, and the family is still growing after his death. This obsession is what leads to celebrities influence over society. We idolise them, what are they? God? Now, we all love reading the Daily Mail, TMZ News, Hollywood Life – no matter how unforgivably cringe worthy they are. We all have such a bright future ahead of us, shouldn’t we be focusing on that? We still have our GCSEs, A Levels and degrees; why are we turning our lives into a bore? We are so gripped to celebrities that we, well the paparazzi, stalk every move for us. In addition to this, the media is responsible for another negative impact celebrities have on teenagers, usually targeted at young girls.
Celebrities are most influential to teenagers hence they are targeted at them. According to a 2006 survey, an average of 70% teenagers said they have celebrities as they role models for how they look and dress. Cara Delevingne, Miranda Kerr, Kendall Jenner; these are just a few names of the “flawless” young models. Flawless. As if they have no flaws at all. Teenagers believe that models actually have no flaws; well of course they’re flawless if they tons of make up covering their faces and bones sticking out everywhere. However, coming out of Miranda Kerr’s mouth, models are actually one of the most insecure people. Always getting told they are not good enough. Some teenagers go as far as developing an eating disorder in the process of trying to look like these “flawless” models. This ridiculous notion of beauty, which consists of tons of make up, airbrushed bodies and anorexic bodies is now all that teenage girls think about. The modelling industry promotes eating disorders; allowing unnaturally skinny models to go on the catwalk. They can fire a model straight away if they think they’re too “fat”. Right, that’s a lot of fat with your bones sticking out and with your thigh gap.
Models are obligated to have a 34-inch bust; a 24-inch waist and 34-inch hips are most demanded. Is that the kind of role model teenagers look for today? All about looks and not personality? What would be a much more positive focus for the media would be celebrities such as Demi Lovato. She has decreased the rate of suicide in America and has raised awareness about self-harm and eating disorders. Demi Lovato has been a positive influence on the youngsters in today’s society as she persuades teenagers that they are okay the way they are after her own struggles with body image. She was 12 when she first developed her eating disorder and at that time, no one really spoke out loud about it. There are so many other things that can influence you; parents, teachers, friends and other things people look up to. Why just celebrities?
