Your body image is about much more than how you feel about your appearance. It’s also how you feel in your body, your sense of control over your body as you go about your day, how you think others perceive it and whether or not you believe it’s “good” enough. Keep reading to learn what shapes your body image and what you can do to have a healthier relationship with your body.
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What affects your body image?
Unfortunately, many people believe their bodies and appearance aren’t attractive enough. These thoughts can be formed by messages you receive from your family, friends, the media and other people. If you grow up hearing negative messages about your body or how you don’t measure up, you may internalize these messages and have a poor self-image.
The commercials, advertisements, TV shows, magazines and social media posts you see can affect how you feel about yourself. For centuries, the beauty and diet industries have tried to convince us that we’re not good enough and need to buy their products to look better.
These tactics make these industries a lot of money: The diet industry makes more than $70 billion each year by targeting people’s insecurities about their weight and size. The beauty industry brings in more than $100 billion.