Advertising | Metro Eireann | Top News | Contact Us
Governor Uduaghan awarded the 2013 International Outstanding Leadership Award  •   South African Ambassador to leave  •   Roddy's back with his new exclusive "Brown-Eyed Boy"  •  
Print E-mail

Is no one worried for our youth?

Last update - Thursday, March 18, 2010, 11:49 By Maggie Aljohmani

Turn on the television today, and like me you’re probably bombarded with advert after advert featuring women of unrealistic sizes, telling us that changing our faces and bodies is the right thing to do. It’s the same with magazines and billboards on the streets, selling us the idea that we need bigger breasts or shapelier buttocks.

Even worse, I see 13-year-old girls on the computers at school looking up the latest cosmetic surgery must-have, and young boys pointing and saying they’re going to get ‘that’ done for their future girlfriends.
Is no one else worried for the youth of our time? Is no one else disturbed by the ideas filling teen girls’ minds, preying on their insecurities and adding an enormous amount of pressure to look as good as those airbrushed, computer-toned women in the adverts? And that’s not to mention the false impressions and expectations among their young male counterparts.
There’s no mention of the difficulties involved in cosmetic surgery – the high cost, the post-operative pain? But we don’t seem to care, because we’re insecure about ourselves. The advertisers make us look at ourselves in the mirror and question what we have and what we’re blessed with.
And it leads to many beautiful women and men risking it all to look ‘better’. It leads to preteen girls watching their favourite television shows and thinking they want to look just like the preening plastic princesses on the screen. It leads to perfectly healthy and well people to search on the web or pick up a phone to look for the next available appointment.
But what everyone forgets to understand is that such operations can only provide a temporary beauty. The tightened skin will sag, the tucked tummy will unfold, the Botox and collagen will wear off.
Yet without them we are still beautiful, as are all of God’s creations. Just like the caterpillar that turns into a butterfly, if our young girls wait a little longer, they will grow into the natural beauty they’re destined to find.

Maggie Aljohmani is a secondary school student on work experience with Metro Éireann


Latest News:
Latest Video News:
Photo News:
Pool:
Kerry drinking and driving
How do you feel about the Kerry County Councillor\'s recent passing of legislation to allow a limited amount of drinking and driving?
0%
I agree with the passing, it is acceptable
100%
I disagree with the passing, it is too dangerous
0%
I don\'t have a strong opinion either way
Quick Links