In therapy, this time of year often brings a rise in body image concerns, especially for girls and women who are already navigating social pressure, identity development, and the expectation to look a certain way. Recently, that pressure has been intensified by the return of a specific aesthetic ideal.
Unrealistic Beauty Standards
Even when girls and women do not consciously agree with these standards, repeated messages from social media, advertising, celebrity culture, and peer comparison can still shape self-perception. Research shows that appearance-focused media and unrealistic beauty ideals can increase body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, anxiety, depressed mood, and risk for disordered eating, especially during adolescence and young adulthood when identity and self-worth are still developing.
The “90s thin” body trend—an ideal that can intensify comparison, perfectionism, and shame in ways that are especially harmful for teenage girls and women.
Summer often amplifies this vulnerability.
There’s simply more visibility:
- Lighter clothing
- More time outdoors or in social settings
- Increased exposure to images of other bodies
For many, this increase in visibility can heighten self-consciousness and quickly spiral into self-criticism. What starts as comparison can become anxiety before social events, guilt around food, obsessive body monitoring, withdrawal from activities, or the belief that their value depends on how closely they match an unrealistic ideal.
Body Image & Self Worth
From a licensed mental health therapist standpoint, body image is not just about appearance, it is deeply connected to mental health, identity, and self-worth. For teenagers, these messages can shape how they develop confidence and belonging. For adult women, they can reactivate long-standing insecurities, reinforce chronic self-judgment, and contribute to stress, anxiety, or depressive symptoms.
When cultural standards shift toward thinness, they can reactivate old beliefs such as “I am only accepted if I look a certain way” or “My body determines my worth.” Over time, those beliefs can narrow a person’s life and pull attention away from relationships, creativity, rest, and joy.
Mental Health Effects Often Seen in Teenage Girls and Women
- Increased body checking, comparison, and preoccupation with weight or shape
- Lower self-esteem and stronger feelings of shame or not being “good enough.”
- Anxiety about photos, swimsuits, social events, or being seen in public.
- Withdrawal from activities, sports, friendships, or experiences because of appearance concerns
- Food guilt, rigid rules around eating, overexercise, or other disordered coping patterns
- A growing tendency to tie identity, confidence, and worth to appearance instead of character, values, and relationships.
These responses are not signs of weakness. They are understandable reactions to repeated cultural pressure, and they can be unlearned with support, awareness, and practice.
Coping Skills That Support Body Positivity and Emotional Well-Being
- Shift from appearance to experience
Encourage others and even ourselves to ask, “How do I feel in my body?” instead of “How do I look?” This helps redirect attention toward comfort, energy, strength, and emotion rather than constant self-evaluation. - Reduce comparison and bodychecking
Frequent mirror checking, photo checking, and comparison on social media can intensify distress. Setting limits around these habits helps interrupt the cycle and lowers anxiety over time. - Curate digital spaces intentionally
Unfollow, mute, or block accounts that trigger comparison or promote unrealistic body standards. Replace them with content that supports diversity, authenticity, self-compassion, and media literacy. - Practice body-neutral or body-positive self-talk
Not every girl or woman will feel ready to “love” her body right away. A gentler starting point can be body neutrality: “My body is worthy of care,” or “My body helps me live my life.” Over time, this can support a more positive and respectful relationship with the body. - Reinforce identity beyond appearance
Help others focus on qualities that are not body-based: kindness, humor, intelligence, creativity, resilience, leadership, and values. Body positivity grows more sustainably when self-worth is rooted in the whole person. - Build protective daily habits
Supportive coping can also include wearing clothes that feel comfortable, eating consistently, moving in enjoyable ways rather than punishing ones, spending time with safe people, and taking breaks from appearance-focused content. - Model healthy language around bodies
Support systems can help protect those affect by this idea by avoiding weight-focused comments about themselves or others, challenging diet culture out loud, and praising effort, character, and emotional strengths more often than appearance.
Trends will continue to change, but worth is not defined by size, shape, or how closely they match a cultural ideal. Supporting body positivity means helping them feel safe, grounded, and valued in all bodies as they are.
About the Author:
Leilani Mitchell, LMFT
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #127220
- Infant Mental Health
- Trauma-Focused
- Couples & Family
- Anxiety
- Attachment Issues
- Depression
- Children & Teens
- Relationship Issues
- CBT
- Mindfulness
- Work Stress
