Seeing What's Outside From Within

Seeing What’s Outside From Within

When a teenager is depressed about their appearance, it is a very serious topic. Obviously bullying can lead to someone feeling like this, but I wanted to find out if there was anything else influencing these feelings.

            When asked what influences people’s appearance, my brother Will thought that being an athlete affects appearance, even at a young age. This made me think back to when I was around 8 years old, I remember thinking if you were good at sports, then you were a popular kid, which meant you were good looking too. After doing some research, I found an article by The Research Quarterly by Exercise and Sport about the role of sports as a social status determinant.  According to Buchannan et al, a group doing research about the role of sport as a social status determinant, “Social status among adolescent peers was gained by being good at something that was highly valued and could bring credit to the school, such as athletic success.” They found this evidence through surveying teenagers and it proves that sports influence the social status of someone, which can lead to thoughts about one’s appearance, too. It is fascinating that the activities somebody participates in can lead to how someone else thinks of you and how you look, which may affect what you think of yourself, possibly leading to the ultimate decision of changing your appearance, and changing your life. If it is needed for physical appearance to be altered, it should not be done through a surgery, but rather through actions, or not at all.