Beautiful Irony

        In 2014 2.8 million teens had one or more major episodes of depression (Teenhelp.com). Sorry to start off this post with such a sad fact, but depression is one illness that doesn't get nearly enough attention. Depression is all too common among teens and adults. In fact it's the most common mental illness in the United States (Teenhelp.com). And why is that? The answer is simple and right in front of everyone-technology. Or to be more specific, the beauty standards that technology allows people to share each day. Depression is an issue that was relevant in the 1900's and still is today. Pecola struggled with hating herself because of how she looked, much like teens do today. It's impossible to go on Facebook and not see a beautiful model staring back at you- practically judging you as you sit on your phone instead of working out like you promised yourself you would. Or maybe you prefer a magazine because paper can't judge you, or can it? You grab a copy of the latest Cosmopolitan and the first thing you see is an article for working out-everyone's tweeting about it. It's basically telling you, "Don't be the only lazy one, learn to love your body-all you have to do is change it."

         

     

How are you supposed to learn to love yourself when everything around you says you aren't good enough? One song by Pink, Don't Let Me Get Me, explains this feeling  perfectly, "LA told me, you'll be a pop star, all you have to change is everything you are. Tired of being compared to damn Britney Spears, She's so pretty, that just ain't me." Society tells you to love who you are, but creates standards of beauty that are so unreasonable even a "pop star" can't achieve them. Depression is caused by any number of things, but the most relevant is the feeling of being unworthy. The feeling of looking in the mirror and just hating what you see. And I can almost guarantee that everyone has had that feeling at least once before. But why? Why do we look in the mirror and judge ourselves so harshly? Because society says that if you don't fit specific and ridiculous standards- you can't be pretty. So when we look in the mirror, all we see is ugliness. The irony of society is beautiful. "Love your body- The 15-min workout everyone's tweeting about." Society wonders why everyone is depressed, maybe if it looked in the mirror it would understand.

"Don't Let Me Get Me" by Pink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_t9AA3Z4PE