A recent survey amongst teens corroborates common knowledge — the media and fashion industry bombard teenage girls with images that pressurise them into wanting to be skinny. According to the American survey, almost nine in 10 girls now feel the need for the fashion industry to project a ‘truer’ image of models as opposed to the pre-pubescent, digitally enhanced idealised teen icons splashed across the glossies. Parallels can be drawn even amongst our genetically more luxuriously built Indian girls where a ‘size zero’ obsession weighs them down as they try to lighten up.The other side of the story though, is rarely told — young women who are intrinsically skinny want it known that their body type comes with its own set of pressures.
Far from being the ideal clothes-horse, Sonali Bantia, 18, finds shopping traumatic, “Shopping became an issue for me, not just because most clothes I buy have to be altered, but also because I am short, which makes it practically impossible for me to get my size. Being skinny can get you depressed at times.” She knows that, “…it seems like being skinny is what most girls want. But the grass is always greener on the other side and being healthy is most important.”Perpetually-on-a-diet girls would envy Sophia Ahmed, also 18, who says, “I have a lot of oily food, but can never seem to put on weight.” Unfortunately, despite her wiry build, Sophia believes she doesn’t fill her clothes out as well as she’d like to, “I am underweight and always hope to get a bit fatter so I can wear clothes that fit me better.”Those on the verge of having a “dangerously underweight” BMI feel the odds are stacked against their self-esteem. Extreme weight gain and obsessive binging also do not provide answers. Namratha Krishnan, 16, finds it ironic that girls suffer from a complex even when they are thin, “My thin friends complain that they can’t wear certain kinds of clothes because they cannot carry them off. It seems funny to me that they should be complaining when it is so glamorous to have a size zero figure.”Having exercised her way into an optimum body size, Pooja Jain, 18, though, has the best of both worlds, “Every girl wants to look curvy. I was previously very heavy, but I’ve shed the pounds and feel healthier. Some of my ultra-thin friends crib about not fitting into the clothes they like. Looking lanky with drooping clothes is not cool.”
N. Kartik Rao