The Self-Concept is a complicated process of gaining self-awareness. It consists of mental images an individual has of oneself: physical appearance, health, accomplishments, skills, social talents, roles, intellectual traits, and emotional states and more –all make up our self-concept.

The development process begins at about six or seven months of age. The child begins to recognize “self” as distinct from surroundings. They stare at anything they see, including their own body parts; hands, feet, toes, and fingers. As they grow, their sense of identity expands through interactions with others –creating self-esteem levels that become the “booster” for the ability to interact.

As people’s outcomes in life depend heavily on how others perceive and evaluate them, they are motivated to convey certain impressions of themselves to others and to refrain from conveying other, undesired impressions. Thus, no matter what else they may be doing, people typically monitor and control their impressions, i.e. a process known as: self-presentation. A great deal of human behaviour is, in part, determined or constrained by people’s concerns with others’ impressions and evaluations of them.

’I’m too short’’. ‘’I’m too tall’’. ‘’I would be happier if I were skinnier, fatter, had bigger muscles, smaller ears, had straight hair, curly hair’’.
Do any of these statements ring a bell? Are you used to demoralizing yourself? If so, you are not alone. As a teenager, our body changes dramatically, so does our physical image. These changes are hard to believe, seeing yourself transform into an adolescent. We sometimes have trouble adjusting to these changes, which can damage our confidence as well as affect our self esteem.

The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.
-Virginia Woolf

Youth is beauty, money is beauty, hell, beauty is beauty sometimes. It's the luck of the draw, it's the natural law; it's a joke, it's a crime.
-Ani Difranco

The teen magazines began appearing in the fifth grade. They seemed to show up overnight, out of nowhere. At lunch or between classes, groups of girls would cluster around the desk of the mature eleven-year-old who brought in the latest issue of Seventeen. Page by page, they explored the intricacies of how to unlock the secrets of boys, makeup tips to accentuate a girl's natural beauty, and quizzes to help one find her celebrity dream date. In the span of a few weeks, every girl had a subscription to her very own teen magazine; teachers were forced to establish rules limiting the times and places that such magazines could be read.

When the magazines first showed up on the scene, I was as curious as any other girl-what did these barometers of pop culture d...

People’s self-esteem either high or low is shaped by their life experiences. I believe a person’s self-esteem begins to take shape at an early age, with their parents being a major influence. Kind, positive, knowledgeable and caring parents help children create a positive self-image. Parents who do not feel good about themselves or others, sometimes take it out on their childern by belittling them or discouraging them. This leads the child down a path of self-doubt and eventually given the right circumstances a lower self-esteem.
My parents where very overprotective which sounds good on the surface, but this caused me to feel unequal to my peers since my parents would not let me play sports or even go on a field trip one time because it involved taking a harbor cruise around the bay, they thought I would fall off the boat. I was the only child not allowed go on the field trip. My parents had the best intentions, but they did not know how this affected me, or my relationship with my peers.

Everything around us in society seems to contain hidden messages. The media is a main proponent of this, including television shows, magazines, billboard signs, and commercials among others. All of these variations of media have something in common; they depict all woman having thin bodies. Many girls and women are left thinking, "What's wrong with me, my body doesn't look like that?" Unfortunately today we are exposed to the media constantly, which invariably influences girls' self-images, often negatively. I look at myself in the mirror and see a body that can afford to lose ten to fifteen pounds. I frequently find myself comparing my body to all of the models and actresses on television. The media is influencing my self-image and causing me to think I do not look good enough according to our society, when I am average weight in reality.
One component of the media is advertisements. Often they not only sell products, but also sell images, values, and concepts of sexuality. They stereotype what we should look like and what is considered "norma...

In today's society, with the various amounts of individuality expressed, it would be beneficial to girls if they actually turned on the television and saw a girl on a commercial that is a size 10, instead of a size 2. The media should expand its horizons and realize that the world has a lot of people who are not tall and skinny. They can focus a little more on inner beauty and strengths, then maybe when we look in the mirror, we would not just see what we look like on the outside, we would be able to see the person we really are.