Puberty and its effect on body image

Puberty generally begins between the ages of eight and fourteen and usually lasts between two and five years thereafter. This bodily process provides both young boys and girls with an increase in body hair, the appearance of acne, an increase in perspiration, and hormonal instability.  

Typically, these symptoms are a source of shame among tweens and teens. The standard of beauty perpetuates an unrealistic prototype of what the process of puberty entails, demonizing the reality of these natural changes. These insecurities can often lead to poor body image. 

For girls, adolescence commonly triggers an increase in body fat, the start of menstruation, and the development of breasts. A National Library of Medicine study found that 78% of female adolescents are dissatisfied with their bodies. Often, a frustration with one’s perceived physical flaws manifests itself into weight-controlling behaviors like restrictive eating, purging, and excessive exercise. Teen girls feel pressured to pursue a thinner that meets the rigid criteria of the beauty standard, which is a woman post-puberty. 

In my personal experience, puberty was a process that I didn’t want to endure. I never questioned how others perceived my physical appearance or whether it resembled that of my other classmates. However, as I began watching other girls begin to grow breasts during the early years of middle school, I became excited for my own transformation. 

My excitement was short-lived. As I began to grow breasts and steadily get taller, I would constantly compare myself to the girls around me, thinking that my stomach was too big and that my body wasn’t proportional. I looked at myself thoroughly in the mirror and found many flaws, but I believed that they would go away once my body developed.

All adolescents and teens undergo puberty at a different time in their lives. In middle school, I felt anxious for my body to develop because it seemed as if all the other girls’ bodies were much more mature than mine. It made me worry that there was something wrong with me. But, the experience of puberty is unique to every individual.

High school junior Krista Høegh, who developed earlier than her classmates, also felt internalized body shame. This was due to insensitive comments made by her peers. Her body looked mature for her age, and she had acne when all the other girls in her class still had baby-smooth skin. This made Høegh feel insecure about her physical appearance.

“People would ask me questions like ‘Why do you have such bad skin?’” Høegh said. “In eighth grade, I didn’t even know what skincare was or how to practice it, but I would try so hard to cover up my imperfections to be pretty and so that people would stop bothering me.”

My peers also made comments about each other’s bodies during the early years of adolescence. I remember in sixth grade, a boy in my class fat-shamed my friend because her stomach wasn’t flat. I was horrified. I also felt internal shame knowing that my friend was slimmer than I was. 

Høegh and I are not the only ones who experienced poor body image during my early years of puberty. Similarly, high school junior Maia Bester grew to be 5’7” by seventh grade, which made her feel insecure. While Bester attempted to hide her growth by slouching so that she would seem the same height as her classmates, she still felt uncomfortable.

“It was awkward to feel a head taller than most of my pears,” Bester said. “The media told me that being tall wasn’t optimal and it made me feel embarrassed about my height for a while.” 

During a sensitive time of physical development, subjecting adolescents to airbrushed and unrealistic images to celebrities and figures that aren’t representative of the majority body type can be damaging to their mental health. A study conducted by Solstice, a residential treatment center for a range of disorders outside of Asheville, North Carolina, found that 88% of adolescents compare themselves to media-curated images. This has more of an impact on teen body image than any other factor in our lives.

The media taught me as an adolescent that my body was something to be ashamed of unless it fit a certain mold. This resulted in many comparisons that made me feel increasingly ashamed of aspects of my body such as my stomach and my legs. I never had abdominal muscles like the women I viewed in the media did and I was starting to develop stretch marks on my thighs, which I felt vastly insecure about as a result. 

I’ve had to work to unlearn that lesson by engaging with more inclusive images and avoiding the comparisons that I had grown up making between myself and others of slimmer body shapes. 

But, my parents contributed to my insecurity, too. My mother told me that delicate features were attractive and sought after among women. I wanted my stomach to be smaller, I wanted my eyes to be bigger, and I wanted to have an hourglass figure.

They made comments about how big they estimated my breasts would be and how what I wore was now too revealing of my body. These comments made me feel embarrassed about my ever-changing physical appearance. 

Høegh’s parents also made her feel uncomfortable within her growing body. Buying different undergarments was a particularly difficult process for Høegh as she was growing, she said. 

“Parents think modern underwear is expensive, and at a growing age some girls need a bigger size every few weeks,” Høegh said. “This can cause conflict between parent and child, even though it’s something that the child needs.” 

By ostracizing aspects of the natural process of growing up, society alienates adolescents who are only trying to navigate their way through a time of drastic physical and emotional development. To stop the epidemic of poor body image in adolescents, the increase of body fat, acne, body hair, and other puberty-induced developments must be normalized.