Teen Files: The Truth About Body Image

Teens are faced with many pressures regarding body image, such as the muscle men and waifish women featured in ads and magazines. This program shows its teenage participants how popular ideas of "beauty" damage teens physically and psychologically. Teens comparing themselves to the "life-size" - and completely unrealistic - proportions of Ken and Barbie dolls illustrate the connection between such idolized images, and student consumption of steroids and diet pills. Visits to a magazine modeling session and computer graphics artists show how the models and clothing are manipulated and photos are altered to ensure the model's appearance fits the currently accepted image. Even these supposedly "perfect" people aren't what they seem. Keena Turner, a former San Francisco 49-er, relates how he became a Super Bowl champion without using steroids, and former model Magali Amadei recounts her painful battle with an eating disorder.