You can shape your success(TM) by shaping you body

        Most models are also tanned to make them look healthy when the truth is just the opposite. Whether the tan comes from the sun or blue light bulbs, you are putting your skin to a very high risk of skin cancer not to mention skin fragility where skin almost turns transparent and loses its elasticity through loss of collagen. Recently, Cancer Research UK found that 75% of young people in Britain aged 16-24 want a tan and are not worried about the side affects. This is most certainly due to photos of tanned celebrities being plastered up for every one to see because before technology allowed people to see what others looked like, people were content with being pale.

        However, unnatural beauty and the health risks to being tanned are minor compared to every young person’s quest to be very skinny. Celebrity culture is constantly bombarding its followers with new ways of loosing weight; all it takes is motivation and dedication or so they say. The problem is that young people can take this too far. They do not understand that, according to the National Eating Disorder Information Centre, “Human beings naturally come in a wide range of sizes” and that a persons physical qualities are usually hereditary. This can lead to the long-term decline in the young person’s mental and physical health.

        On the other hand, celebrities can give young people idols who they can look up to and aspire to be, not necessarily in looks but in their career. Also, not all celebrities are beautiful, tanned and skinny; some have become famous for their acting skills or their sport skills. It should also be noted that a celebrity is not restricted to being a movie star or a sport personality. A celebrity is simply a widely known person such as Einstein; a role model for some young people. Also, the long term “image-related” health problems of young people are not completely due to celebrity culture. For most young people the reason they want to look good is because they want to fit in with every one else. As Dr. Peter Marsh, the Director at the Social Issues Research Centre, says “To be an individual, we first have to be one of the lads or lasses.”

        In conclusion, the emphasis on physical appearance in modern celebrity culture does risk damaging the long-term health of young people because of the way celebrities are presented in the media. Many young people think that if they look like a celebrity they will become one, not knowing or not caring about the health risks. I think it is also important for the celebrities to realise what their appearance is saying and doing to young people because young people should not have to feel the need to starve themselves to “look better”.