I wrote an essay in English class about the affect media has on our society. Here is the intro paragraph:

Dilated pupils, dull eyes. Thin, crimson veins branched out across the sclera. Once vibrant and glowing, now weighed down by bags bearing the burdens of how society expects her to look. The feeling of emptiness takes hold when gazed upon. She paints a mask manufactured of assorted products advertised to her, in an attempt to hide her nonexistent flaws.  Gray hairs had creeped through the pores of her scalp, scattered throughout her curly, raven locks; brittle and lifeless. All that remains underneath the over priced, designer clothing is a skeleton of a once warm-hearted, blissful girl, broken down by the mentality society has set for her. Too many people have the same mindset of seeing beauty as one way and one way only. Countless people claim outer appearance insignificant compared to the pure allurement of inner beauty. However, in the past year a total of $7 billion was spent on makeup alone, 11.7 million cosmetic surgical procedures were performed, and 10 million women suffer from eating disorders (40% of newly diagnosed eating disorders are in girls 15-19 years old).  Young girls are endangering their life to try and fit in with what society tells them to look like, and we just sit back and do nothing, if not encourage the behavior. It’s time we open our minds and realize beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, not in what the television shows us.