by Hannah Shope

Did you know that students face many daily stresses including exams, assignments, classes, student loans—and that’s not even including the stress to maintain the perfect, ideal body that society has engraved into our heads.

According to the National Eating Disorder Association, eating disorders usually occur between the ages of 18 and 21. In the United States, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life. Among those disorders are anorexia nervosa (which is a loss of appetite for food), bulimia nervosa (which involves purging to rid the body of unwanted calories by means of vomiting or diuretics),  binge eating disorder, or an eating disorder not otherwise specified.

Media plays a huge role in our society. We all tend to look up to celebrities, whether it’s a singer, actor, or writer. Although I have never really been super-heavy into the Hunger Game series, I have always loved Jennifer Lawrence. She is just phenomenal, on stage and off. She’s one of those actresses that doesn’t fall into the “ideal image”.

In an article on crushable.com Jennifer Lawrence said, “I’m never going to starve myself for a part. I don’t want little girls to be like, ‘Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner. That’s something I was really conscious of during training, when you’re trying to get your body to look exactly right. I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong, not thin and underfed.”

In that same article singer and actress Rihanna said, “You shouldn’t be pressured into trying to be thin by the fashion industry, because they only want models that are like human mannequins. But you have to remember that it’s not practical or possible for an everyday woman to look like that. Being size zero is a career in itself so we shouldn’t try and be like them. It’s not realistic and it’s not healthy.”

If society would stop telling people that they have to look a certain way to be accepted, the world would be a much better place. Don’t ever let society tell you that you’re not good enough. God has made us all so unique and different. Psalms 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”