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Can Social Media Cause Eating Disorders in Kids?
A pediatrician shares the latest science — and her own observations
Before I saw my first issue of Teen Magazine, I did not know that my hair was all wrong. Enlightenment came after I spent a moment comparing myself to the model on the cover. I looked around at the other girls and realized that they all had hair like she did (approximately). Clearly, I needed my bangs to float above my head like a peacock, just like everyone else.
I had no idea how to do my hair that way, and no Google at the time to help me. So I asked a friend, who went to work on me after school. I survived the curling iron and the burnt hair smell, and only coughed a little on the clouds of hairspray.
When I look back at my cringeworthy sixth-grade photo, I laugh. A wall of brown hair sticks straight up from my forehead in a bizarre marriage of mohawk and mullet.
Like so many adolescents before me, I wanted to look right. I found my appearance lacking when I compared myself to a standard of beauty. I did not have a miniature computer in my hand to dictate what was beautiful, and there was no such thing as a selfie, but still I struggled with perfecting my image.
