This is a highly debatable subject and although it is not considered to be the cause of eating disorders, media is often viewed as a contributing factor, especially amongst adolescent girls, who view the size and shape of models and actresses, as ideal body image.
Adolescents, who have an eating disorder, often have a distorted body image to begin with. They’re often over critical and ruthless in their self-evaluation, in terms of their body shape and weight. Through the medium of magazines and film, current trends pertaining to body image, or rather society’s image of the body, a person with an eating disorder feels that their own personal body, does not measure up to what is portrayed within the media and ideal or beautiful.