<p>I don’t believe there is.</p>
<p>If there is pressure (self-imposed more often than not, **** what the media has to say), I just naturally ignore it.</p>
<p>I think everyone just likes to look presentable. At least I do.</p>
<p>“justaverage … i’m pretty much in the same boat as you. i never felt the need to wear make up or make my hair look pretty, but that could also stem from my laziness factor.”</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s partially laziness for me too. Way too much work + I’d have to give up sleep. No thanks. haha.</p>
<p>Yea. It always amazes me when people tell me they wake up at 6 to get ready (school starts at 8:15). It makes me want to cry and steal all that lost sleep for myself.</p>
<p>There are sort of two ways pressure to look nice affects me.</p>
<p>First (arbitrarily so) is my way of dress. That’s basically self-imposed. I personally feel that I must dress the way I do.
Secondly, is weight. I always feel fat. Always. And I’m not stating my height and weight because the numbers don’t seem to match up to my actual size, which is 4. And cause I don’t feel like it. The first time I tried to go a day without eating I was 10. And now if I do it I don’t even get hungry. I think the longest I’ve gone is 5 days. I purged twice and legit, it’s horrible and I would <em>never</em> do it again. The first time I felt sick for 2 days and my throat burned.
Yeah, so I think I would be happy if I were a size 0. But I probably wouldn’t be. I have one pair of size 0 jeans and they make me really happy.</p>
<p>walking out on the street in jeans and a t shirt apparently make me unfashionable.</p>
<p>wearing leggings, skirts, skinny black or highlight colored pants, non athletic/converse shoes, vintage blouses, vintage shirts, blahblahblah. The ten year olds dress up like twenty year olds.</p>
<p>^ Ugh, I hate that. First off, why would you let your children dress so much older then themselves? Don’t let them follow trends that are meant to hold sex appeal! They’re kids!</p>
<p>And I have to say, highlighter colored pants are possibly THE ugliest piece of clothing I’ve seen become popular. Ew.</p>
<p>^ How are converse shoes, vintage blouses/shirts, leggings, and skinny jeans sexy?</p>
<p>Little girls should definitely not be wearing mini skirts, but I think “maxi” dresses and “maxi” skirts might be in now anyway.
Obviously there are some vintage blouses that will be low cut or form fitting and all that, but most of them will not.
Same with jeans, but even skinnies don’t have to be tight.</p>
<p>I"m a guy. 5"11 and 260.</p>
<p>Yep I’m a fat guy but i’ve been working on myself. Not through dieting but through exercising. Everytime I leave the gym I feel wonderful! I stop feeling the anxiety of self consciousness and feel the joy of muscles. Plus it a great way to spent time with friends and family. Everybody should hit the gym! Not to lose weight but to feel better about yourself plus making yourself healthier.</p>
<p>I used to feel under a lot of pressure to look good, particularly concering my weight. I practically defined myself based on how the guy I liked at the moment, and sometimes my friends, my mom’s friends, my parents, etc, etc thought about my appearance. It got so bad at one point that I was binging and purging and I did that regularly, for over a year.</p>
<p>But somehow at the beginning of this year I just stopped caring. Now, I literally don’t give a crap how people think I look. I dress in whatever’s around most of the time and I’ve gone back to how I used to be before tenth grade - I read ALL the time and hang out with only a few friends whose company I really enjoy. And that’s translated into my being a lot more confident, and unembarrassed about doing quirky things that I feel like doing, or having fun in any way I choose to. It took me a while, but I think rediscovering my passion (reading, basically 
) really really helped. So yeah. Life’s good :)</p>
<p>5’10", 135 lbs. </p>
<p>I’m skin and bones according to many…not me, though :S</p>
<p>Male, 17, *very *little pressure. By and large I attribute my apathy in this regard to my having attended an all-boys school for the past 4 years, where there was absolutely no benefit to be had from devoting time and energy to one’s appearance (past keeping in line with the dress code). I know of nobody of my own sex who would care at all what I looked like; in fact, I would think that more “scorn” would be heaped upon those who pledged inordinate amounts of time to their appearance than those that didn’t devote any at all, at least in my circles . Perhaps this’ll change once I start interacting a bit more with the opposite sex in college, though I can’t imagine myself socializing with people who care about matters such as these very much.</p>
<p>Lately I’ve been feeling slightly self-conscious about my general lack of visible musculature (I suppose doing nothing but cardio will do that to ya), and so the weightlifting I’ve begun in recent weeks has been, in some part, at least, for esthetic reasons (though mostly for functional, health related, and conflict-avoidance/resolution ones, in that order). Like begets like, after all. The noob gains have also made me feel a bit more self-assured, I guess.</p>
<p>Oh, and I feel reasonably “confident” and whatnot wearing most anything besides, oh, I dunno, drag? Haha, though I’ve never payed any real attention whatsoever to my clothing (always electing to go with whatever’s cheapest, most comfortable, and operative).</p>
<p>Edit: Haha, and I’ve found diet to be the most annoying part about working out. I couldn’t cut all cardio from my lifestyle, so to keep in with the 500/day surplus recommended for a clean bulk I have to eat some 4000+ calories minimum, and I’m just never that hungry. It’s very annoying :/</p>
<p>I’m 15 and female. I wouldn’t say I have a lot of pressure to look good, but I do have a good amount. I mean, what girl, or person, doesn’t want to look good or at least be able to look good?? I feel that the pressure I have is from both the media, self-imposed, and to look good to both peers and those of opposite sex… so basically just a combination of factors.</p>
<p>I’m really skinny, 5’6" and a tiny bit less than 100 lbs. I don’t have boobs or a butt or curves. The “ideal” body perpetuated by the media/society is like a previous poster said: relatively thin + curvy w/ boobs and an ass. I actually like my body most of the time, although I wish I weighed more. However occasionally people tell me that I look like I’ll break, or that they’re afraid they’ll break me. 
Not fun and I tell them that. But what hurts me most is when people automatically assume that I have an eating disorder. I eat a normal amount and regularly, I’d like to think I’m healthy although I don’t exercise. A few months back, I had a really bad self-image and used to cry/ get depressed about why I had to have my body and why I couldn’t just be a normal weight. I’ve started to get past that… I can’t do anything to change it; my mom gave me this body, I should just work with it. (This is getting really scattered lol)</p>
<p>So yeah, I’ve slowly started to gain a better self-image although I am still self-conscious. I feel like I look like crap a lot of days but honestly I’m too lazy and really don’t care enough to make an effort to look good lol. As long as I’m presentable 
Then there are those days when I feel good… I feel like I’m wayyy more confident when I don’t have to go to school. I hate seeing the same people everyday and feel more judged at school than in the real world. Which is why I hate high school so much. :/</p>
<p>Oh, and I’m too lazy to make an effort to dress well, especially when I could be sleeping. I don’t really do my hair and I don’t wear makeup. If I wake up with bad hair I’ll just put it up in a pony tail (Which is often XD)</p>
<p>I’m not going to lie. I think there is immense pressure on girls to look good. And probably for good reason. We judge on looks.</p>
<p>To all of those who are struggling with self-image, let me give you some advice. </p>
<p>DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF!</p>
<p>I had body image issues for 2 years of my life, and let me tell you, diet and exercise is the way to go. I got myself down to 6’5" and 155. Now I am much better. I’ve gained 11 pounds of healthy weight, and I hope to gain more. Just remember that diet and exercise are your friends!</p>
<p>@ mulberrypie: I’m glad you’re feeling better about yourself! You’re my fb friend and really, really, pretty – I never noticed you looking unattractively fragile or anything. :3</p>
<p>Also, I’m totally the same way about feeling better outside of school. Some days, I feel good about myself if I spend time on my hair/makeup to go somewhere other than school. But if I spent time in the morning trying to look good before school, I’d feel gross/pathetic. Lol.</p>
<p>I’m 17 and female and the pressure to look good doesn’t really come from anyone but myself (if that makes sense). Looking at skinny girls on TV and magazines doesn’t really have an impact on me because I know I will never in a million years look like that. However, I’m the one who strives to be the best dressed in school and when someone wears something nice, I feel like I have to be better. Its bad but I can’t really help it. Being a perfectionist doesn’t really help it either.</p>
<p>female, 16.</p>
<p>yeah, i would say i definetly do feel the pressure… but i only really feel pressure from myself. i’m 5’6" and about 118 pounds. my weight definetly does get to me some times. I know I’m a healthy weight and not overweight, but still a part of me always wants to be thinner. I definetly feel a sense of satisfaction when I lose even a pound or two and it’s a really good feeling. I joined the gym at least for the summer while I’m not doing sports. I feel really guilty eating certain foods if I didn’t at least exercise a little bit that day.</p>
<p>As far as clothes and make-up goes, I go shopping a lot. I don’t feel comfortable wearing like a t-shirt and sweats around other people, because I just kinda feel gross and I’m not confident wearing them at all. And I always need to at least wear some sort of make-up to go out. Like I don’t wear a ton or anything, but I need to have on some under eye cover up and mascara, or I won’t go out of the house because I feel like disgustingly ugly.</p>
<p>so mostly I put the pressure on myself because I don’t feel good about myself if I don’t look a certain way.</p>
<p>i feel no pressure at all to look good,
unless i’m going to a job interview or something
(besides, i already know i’m good looking) :D</p>
<p>i don’t even try to look smart or nice or anything
(unless there’s a specific reason for it)
i think i’ve been conditioned to not really care about what society thinks of me</p>
<p>female, 18.</p>
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<p>The “ideal” athlete is like Michael Jordan; the “ideal” scientist is Albert Einstein. I’m neither, yet I don’t care. The idea that someone is making you be “ideal” is wrong.</p>