Hello! And welcome back to my blog post. I am Anannya Balachandran, a grade 11 student currently studying at Dr. Charles Best Secondary School, and I am so excited to be able to share my semester two project with all of you. For my semester two project, I chose to research an Inquiry question related to a topic that is close to my heart. Body dysmorphia continues to be an issue numerous teens around the world face today. For my semester two project, I chose to research the inquiry question, “How does the portrayal of beauty standards by the media contribute to the ongoing presence of body dysmorphia?
When trying to come up with my Inquiry question, I was intrigued to research a topic related to Mental Health and one that affects teenagers at a global scale. Body dysmorphia, also known as a mental health condition related to worrying too much about one’s physical appearance, has become a much more openly spoken about topic in recent years. The number of people who continue to struggle with this disorder is at an all time high, especially with escalating rates in teenagers. I chose this question as I wanted to research on how the media continues to impact this topic and why it is at it’s all time high. This is an issue that doesn’t discriminate when choosing who to target, which is another reason I was so keen on researching it. Men, women, and those from various communities and different walks of life continue to struggle with this issue while only having one thing in common; the self doubt that comes with worrying about one’s physical appearance.
Through this project, I hope to learn more about this topic and hopefully, spread awareness about how it is an issue that is a rising problem in communities all around the world. I also hope to research more deeply into the media’s contributions to this and see if any of them happen to be positive.
I look forward to sharing my research with you, and I cannot wait for you to follow me along on this journey.
Until next time, thank you!
Nice work Anannya! While I disagree with you on a few points the hunger you show for the topic, I highly encourage you to go with and try and learn as much you can about this subject as multiple people have differing oppinions of something as nuanced as health and beauty. A great piece of advise I have for anyone doing a piece on any subject that could be oppinionated in any way, I would put in the extra work to go on sites that might have answers that might oppose the ideas that you currently present. This is all to get a more informed and big picture understanding of the problem on all sides but the substance that you do show proves that you are very passionate for the subject, and some more investigative journalism would push you into exceedingly well put together out-of-the-box territory.