Reflection
Although this may come off as a bizarre post that i am going to share today but i believe it is an issue worth for us to take a step back and dwell upon.
A year ago after my A-levels examination, i have partook in many different aspects of jobs ranging from administrative office work to retail to food and business(F&B) and i would say my short one-month stint at Toss&Turn Salad Bar has definitely got to be the most thought-provoking one.
To put it simply, my job description was rather straightforward; scoping the salad dishes as requested by the customers. What sorely triggered me during this whole month of experience was watching a handful of thin skeletal body frame women with serious deep sunken eyes and hollow cheeks patronizing the shop at almost a daily basis. The portion they ordered was miserably small(few did not even finish their bowl!) and it was disheartening to witness this blinded mass of individuals obsessive of attaining a 'slim' body is slowly transcending into young teenage girls today.
The first thing that struck my mind was what has the media been truly feeding our impressionable youngs with? Certainly, the ubiquitous presence of powerful media platforms such as TV, google and facebook with commercials harping on the best remedies for weight loss, skinny models strutting down the walkway on reality shows , online blogshop models jumping on the bandwagon of 'eating clean' (which unconsciously seeing themselves starving to achieve that 'perfect' figure) creates this new obsession of becoming thin.
Personally as a teenage girl, i cannot deny that this negative media influence is efficacious and it has impacted my health to a certain extent. I used to survive on eating only a small portion of fruits and vegetables daily which made me feeling weak and lethargic for the entire day. My immune system fell and my parents grew increasingly worried. Knowing that this extreme eating habit is definitely not realizing, i was sensible and quick enough to switch to a proper diet everyday with adequate amount of exercise. After this incident, i become aware that there are many different possible avenues to adopt a healthy lifestyle and starvation is truly not the only option. On the other hand, we youths should learn to suppress the growing pressure of being socially accepted within us because ultimately, there is no one true definition of beauty. Instead, embracing ourselves, accepting our flaws and appreciating our inner beauty to me is what that matters.
