14 DAY TRIAL // Over the last few years, teenage girls have been under constant pressure from both the media and their peers to look the very best they can, to have an optimum weight, and to also obtain the best academic results possible. They also have to be athletic, brainy, and to incorporate various extra-curricular activities into their CV, in order to have a chance of obtaining a good job after college. But such intense pressure takes its toll on more and more US teenage girls, who end up suffering from an increased range of mental health issues, as well as from eating disorders and self-mutilation. In extreme cases, young females even committed suicide because they could not cope with the increasing stress.
Psychologist Stephen Hinshaw, from the University of California, in Berkley, says that this entire generation is subjected to these rigorous demands, and that the problem of depression is very widespread among American teenagers, and especially among those girls who are a bit overweight. Instead of focusing on their unique personalities and way of thinking, they struggle hard to turn themselves into the most popular girls in school, which is very superficial, and totally not worth it.
“Given the unprecedented advances for women, it is the best of times to be a teenage girl. But it is also the worst of times, because many in this generation are experiencing depression earlier and are more vulnerable to serious mental health problems,” Hinshaw, who is also a child and adolescent psychopathology expert, as well as the UC Berkeley psychology department chair, explains.
“The Triple Bind is why girls who might have accepted or even celebrated their size 10 bodies a generation or two ago now feel disgustingly fat if they're not a size 2 or 4. It's why girls who might not have been all that interested in boys at ages fourteen and fifteen now insist on having steady boyfriends by ages eleven and twelve,” he adds in his book, “The Triple Bind: Saving our Teenage Girls from Today's Pressures.”
“It's why girls who once had a bit of breathing room to figure out their futures now feel under the gun before they finish sixth grade, already anxious about getting perfect SATs and a roster of impressive extracurriculars. And it's why girls who once might have identified with alternative female figures – a rock star, an athlete, a female author – now have trouble finding any role models other than those who are beautiful, hot, thin, and thoroughly focused on conventional notions of success,” Hinshaw points out.
The author advises young girls to get a wider perspective on things, maybe by volunteering at various shelters or organizations, which will appreciate them for who they are and not judge them by artificial standards of beauty, as it's so often the case even inside families, where these girls should receive the most emotional support.