Investigating student experience with

body image at VHS
By Lila Cohen, Deputy Editor, & Lucy Wing, Content Editor

 

All student interviewees in this article are quoted under a pseudonym to ensure their privacy.

Content warning: This article covers potentially triggering topics such as eating disorders, body image, and mental health. If these make you uncomfortable, we suggest you stop reading. If you are struggling with these issues yourself, please reach out to any of these resources below or make a trusted friend or family member aware.

National Eating Disorders Association Hotline: (800)-931-2237
Vashon Island High School Neighborcare Clinic: (206) 548-7550

“The mirror always looks different in our perspective because we notice the little things [about our body], we’re constantly looking at it [and] critiquing it.” – VHS wrestler Gustavo

Healthcare professionals have a word for this internal perception. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) defines body image as “how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture yourself in your mind.” While body image isn’t inherently negative, the insecurity people often feel stems from how they believe others perceive them.

“I think ever since I was really little I was hyper-conscious of my body. Not just the whole size thing, but how I presented and how other people perceive me,” VHS student Susie said.

Nationwide, body image is one of the most prevalent mental health struggles amongst teenagers today. Approximately 75 percent of Vashon Island High School students who responded to an anonymous Riptide survey struggle with their body image, a number that spans all grades, genders, sizes, economic classes, and levels of athletic participation.

“I know so many people who have struggled with body image issues… Something significant in our culture needs to change; nobody should have to spend time thinking their body is unworthy,” one student said in response to the anonymous survey.

One place to start the process of change is in the home, as for many, home is the first place teens experience exterior pressures surrounding food and body image. According to a 2008 study cited on the NEDA website, children of mothers who are overly concerned about their weight are at increased risk for modeling their unhealthy attitudes and behaviors.

Katherine Metzelaar, a Seattle-based registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, and certified intuitive eating counselor, works with clients who are struggling with their body image and disordered eating.

“So many of us grow up in and exist in households that demonize a lot of foods. Even though parents are doing the best that they can and are usually doing it as an act of care, it causes a lot of harm,” Metzalaar said.

VHS student Bernard recognizes this pattern in their own body image journey.

“I don’t think parents think enough about what they’re modeling to their children, [both] communication-wise, or even just body image and self-image. [It’s] a big thing because if you don’t think well of your body, your kids aren’t going to think well of their own bodies [because] that’s what they’re being taught,” Bernard said.

The parents of today’s teenagers faced similar pressures when they were growing up, as the pattern of parent-to-child body image struggle is a tale older than just this generation. The societal messages around body image and the “ideal body” put enormous amounts of pressure on people of all ages and the perceived need to conform and change is presenting younger than ever.

“One trend we’re seeing is that [negative body image has] transformed younger and younger. I work at an elementary school and it’s come up a lot more in fourth and fifth graders who are really starting to do some restricting habits or over-exercising,” Neighborcare nurse practitioner Hannah Harper said.

According to a 2015 study by the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, the biggest contributing environmental factor to body image, and in turn disordered eating, is the “sociocultural idealization of thinness.”

“[There are] constant images around a specific kind of body that you’re supposed to have, [but it’s] more that that body is the exception. And in fact, the person that has [that] body might not even have that same body in real life,” Metzelaar said.

Through social media, people are able to share not only airbrushed, “perfect,” photos but also videos and messages promoting thinness.

“I felt there’s this idea that the skinnier [you] are, the more attractive and ideal you look… And I think this culture stems from social media and sociocultural norms. I have to put so much blame on Tik Tok,” VHS wrestler Gustavo said. “There are so many teenagers who don’t know what they’re doing by promoting being unhealthy in these unrealistic bodies. It’s not even just promoting unrealistic bodies, it’s promoting that average people can look like this, and all you have to do is eat healthy and workout a healthy amount and you’ll look like this, but that’s a lie.”

According to “This Picture Does Not Portray Reality: Developing and Testing a Disclaimer for Digitally Enhanced Pictures on Social Media Appropriate for Austrian Tweens and Teens,” a 2021 study published in the Journal Of Children And Media, digital distortions on social media posts, such as photoshop, are “ineffective in reducing the perceived realism of the presented images.”

However, photoshopped images aren’t the only potentially harmful content on social media, especially with the ease of accessibility to Tik Tok and other social media apps where damaging content can easily become a trend and go viral.

“Eating disorders were really glamorized [on Tik Tok]. A lot of people fall into that trap and I was one of those people. I was like ‘If they don’t have to eat this much, why [should] I?’ so that [had] a big impact [on] me. When you’re consuming so much content it becomes a huge focus in your mind,” VHS student Livy said.

Social media platforms are built to cater to users’ interests, meaning it is easy to unintentionally curate a negative feed.

“[Social media apps] have their algorithms… that really target women and young girls with body image [issues],” Neighborcare mental health therapist Anna Waldman said.

Social media users feel the pressure to share the most “Instagram-worthy” parts of life. Regardless of influencer status, profiles are built meticulously as highlight reels to display the “ideal” body type.

“Social media mostly showcases people at their best, but you are not always going to be at your best, which causes you to have unfeasible expectations of yourself,” one VHS student said in response to the Riptide survey.

These expectations are added to by outside pressure from society, community, and even friends and family, making many feel the need to not only live up to their own expectations but also others’ perceptions.

“We don’t actually have a desire to be skinny, we have a desire to fit in,” Susie said.

This desire to fit in is the driving force behind many mental health struggles and is often the reason why self-acceptance can feel so out of reach.

“We get [so many] negative perspectives of body image in the media and in magazines, everywhere we look reinforces these ideas about unhealthy body types and at the same time, feeds [this] negative self-talk and negative body image,” Harper said.

Messages and societal pressures can pile upon each other, causing disordered eating patterns and other mental health repercussions.

“People don’t realize how much eating disorders have an impact on your mental health. I would wake up anxious, and go to bed depressed. It wasn’t healthy. I think [my eating disorder] took more of a toll on my mental [health] than physical health,” Livy said.

It is well known there is a strong correlation between mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression, and eating disorders. But the true interconnectivity of mental health and eating disorders is often overlooked.

“Eating disorders are mental illnesses,” Metzlaar said.

Furthermore, it is rare that an eating disorder is the only mental health struggle someone is facing.

“There is often a lot of both anxiety and depression that is co-occurring at the same time the eating disorder is happening and undereating can lead to things getting worse,” Metzelaar added.

The simultaneous pull of various mental health issues contributes to an unhealthy mindset and headspace, meaning those impacted are more susceptible to further damage.

“In addition to my body image issues, I had a myriad of other factors in my life that made me feel as though I was spiraling out of control. My food intake was something I could control— and as I got smaller I felt like I could disappear, which at the time was something I wanted,” one VHS student said.

This need for control, when unchecked and combined with other mental health issues, is what can lead to more dangerous practices.

“I think especially when I’m depressed or anxious, I just kind of get on a roll and at a certain point you’re just grabbing on to things you can ruin. Your body is one of them,” Susie said.

Self-destructive behavior can easily become a pattern and it is much easier to fall into these habits without structure, something that the COVID-19 pandemic took away from many.

“A lot of [disordered eating] is about control and needing to feel in control of something. That’s one reason we’ve seen a huge spike in disorders during COVID, people have felt really helpless and hopeless,” Waldman said.

While some turned to their eating as a way to find control, others found that in exercise.

“I’m trying to find healthy coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety and a really good one is just [going to] lift some weights and play some angry music, [but] I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want to look good as well,” Gustavo said.

Everyone makes their own decisions surrounding exercise and eating, but in some settings, people can become susceptible to unhealthy paths. Sports is one of these paths; the added layers of competition and the team environment are enough to push people to do things they might not otherwise do, especially in weight-focused sports.

“Though most athletes with eating disorders are female, male athletes are also at risk—especially those competing in sports that tend to emphasize diet, appearance, size, and weight. In weight-class sports (wrestling, rowing, horse racing) and aesthetic sports (bodybuilding, gymnastics, swimming, diving) about 33 percent of male athletes are affected. In female athletes in weight class and aesthetic sports, disordered eating occurs at estimates of up to 62 percent,” author Leslie Bonci said in her book Sport Nutrition for Coaches.

Wrestling is the only sport at VHS that falls in this category of “weight-class sports,” and some athletes at VHS want to shine a light on the potentially detrimental environment.

“I think we have a pretty good group of kids wrestling [at VHS], but the culture surrounding the sport and high school sports are taken very seriously. The amount of pressure put on you [to] perform and do better, both on yourself from your own standards, and the team standards are a mess,” Gustavo said.

This pressure to succeed and be the best can push athletes into having a disordered relationship with food and exercise.

“Some kids will do anything for the upper hand competing. I have heard ‘I’ve dropped 10 pounds’ from multiple people, I have heard kids talking about just starving themselves… a lot of kids on the team don’t even know they have eating disorders,” Gustavo said.

One of the VHS wrestling coaches, Per Lars Bloomgren, is aware of these issues in the sport and on the team. He works to ensure that the wrestlers have support from the coaches to make the right decisions regarding their health.

“I feel like we have a pretty good feel on the pulse of the team. If someone is struggling week after week to maintain a weight class or to potentially go down a weight class, that’s something we are very much against. We don’t want any [negative relationships with body image and food] to take away from them experiencing the sport together,” Bloomgren said.

While the coaches have some influence over keeping athletes safe, at the end of the day it’s the athletes involved who are in the driver’s seat when it comes to their mental and physical health.

“In my experience, kids have only ever cut weight because they want to be successful, not because they’ve been pressured by their coaches to cut weight,” VHS wrestler Dywane said.

Gustavo also credited his coaches for not promoting unhealthy weight loss, but still recognized the potentially destructive environment.

“There’s this idea that if you drop weight classes, you’ll be a better wrestler, and I think the coaches do a pretty good job of not pushing it. But the other wrestlers, on the other hand, it’s pretty toxic,” Gustavo said.

Youth sports provide many mental health benefits, but the pressure to succeed can quickly amount to more harmful mental health outcomes.

“You should train to be happy, if it doesn’t bring you happiness, stop doing it,” Gustavo said.

For some, however, achieving a positive relationship between exercise and food is harder to maintain.

“It is rare that I have worked with someone who hasn’t had some sort of disordered relationship with exercise because we exist in a culture that is so often encouraging us and teaching us that exercise is directly related to controlling our body shape and size,” Metzelaar said. “[They’re] so intertwined that it’s hard to separate them.”

Recognizing the correlation between exercise and eating is the first step, but from there everyone’s recovery journey varies.

“My experience is unique to me and it is important to remember that everyone goes through struggles with food and body image differently,” one VHS student said in response to the anonymous Riptide survey.

In the conversations surrounding body image, disordered eating, and healing, there is a place for everyone, not just those who are struggling, to start educating themselves and making progress towards a more balanced future.

“[Start with] intentionally seeking out a diversity of accounts so you start getting exposure to a variety of bodies, which is much more representative of how bodies look in the world,” Metzelaar said.

“… I would say not only diverse in size but also race, ethnicity, abilities, sexual orientation, really widening the diversity of the people that you follow so that your brain can start to see that there’s not just this one type of body that you’re supposed to have.”

Waldman echoed this advice and introduced the idea of intuitive eating, a next step for many in the process of healing.

“I would really love to see us move more towards that idea of listening to your body and listening to what your body needs and wants. And understanding that if you listen to your body and you nourish it appropriately, it might not look like the “ideal body” because most of us don’t have that ideal natural body,” Waldman said. “… There’s no wrong way to have a body.”

A variety of uncontrollable factors play a part in determining the size and shape of someone’s body; not just food or exercise. However, for many, it is their perception of themselves that needs to change, not their body.

“No matter what size you are, people have different genetics and it’s normal to be different sizes, so regardless of your size, just focus on being healthy and being happy and learning to accept and love your body,” Harper said.