It affects about 17.8million people each year, almost half of these being women. Girls are more likely to become depressed twice as much as men, and much of that is due to the society girls live in today. Today's culture is based on capitilism, sexism and lookism (Pipher, 18). Also most girls are brought up to respond differently to situations then men, and are not shown how to express their anger. There also never used to be R rated movies or designer clothes, or sex or graphic violence in the media. Being shapely and healthy looking was beautiful. There was no "Playboy" or XXX movies, drugs were not in every neighborhood. Teenagers would rebel through clothes, hair, and music. Now more than ever teenage girls are in danger and our world is to blame.

In order to even understand why depression is taking over t

There is now more need then ever for girls to be tall and skinny, attaining the "lollipop look", where the head looks big compared to the skinny body (wingsofmadness.com). Most girls in the media are made to look beautiful and perfect, and magazines constantly contain articles to help girls with their "flaws". This constant pressure for perfection can consume a young girls life and develop into a depression.

flicting harm on their body can become cathartic. When there are no better coping strategies, hurting the body becomes a way to calm down.

ill destroy themselves to be accepted socially. They will strive to be fully feminine and inevitably fail because they are not pretty or popular enough (Ferber, 5). Some will make the necessary sacrifices to be almost perfect, and will accept the damage they are doing to themselves. All girls are experiencing some pain or suffering during this time of their lives, its when they blame it on themselves and their failures that it manifests into depression.

Teenage girls themselves are going through a lot of changes in these years. It is when they feel the most pressure from society to fit in. They need to feel like part of a group and to be accepted and popular. In their early adolscence studies have shown that girls IQ scores drop immensly. They lost their resiliency and optimism, they become less curious and inclined to take risks. Girls lose assertive, energetic and "tomboyish" personalities, they become less deferential, more self-critical and depressed (Pipher, 19). There is also a great unhappiness with their bodies. Most teen girls feel ugly and stupid during sometime in their highschool year. There is great amount of guilt of when taking time for themselves. The gap between girls "true selves" and what culture sees as proper females creates enormous problems (Pipher, 149). During the teen years girls feel social pressure to put aside who they really are and display only a small portion of their gifts. Girls w!

There are many reasons why the lives of many girls today are being consumed by depression. But almost every reason is based around the society that girls live in. Today's culture has brought more freedom to women than ever, but it is has also taken freedom in different ways. The ideals that are placed into a young women's head tell her in order to be accepted she must be beautiful, popular, independent, skinny, and smart. It is not the girls o

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Playboy XXX, United Adolescent, , girls live today's, teen girls feel, live today's culture, girls feel, society girls live, depression reason, cutting bodies, teenage girls, everyday life, teen girls, major depression, past decade, smart girls, mild depression,
Approximate Word count = 1649
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)