Consider these statistics:

• The perfect fashion model is 5 ft. 8 in. (173 cm.) tall and weighs 115 pounds (52 kg.). The average North American woman is 5 ft. 3 in. (160 cm.) tall and weighs 144 pounds (65 kg.).

• 67% of today’s women believe they are expected to be more physically attractive than women from their mother’s generation.

• At least half of all girls at age 9 report having been on a diet. At 8th grade, 80% of girls say they are on diets.

• 80% of girls report experiencing harassment.
 

• 7 million girls and women have eating disorders, compared with 1 million boys and men. (I am assuming this is in the U.S.)
 

• 20% of college-aged women in America are bulimic.
 

Psychologists say that girls’ self-esteem hits a peak at 9 years of age and then drops.

How are we as adult women contributing to unhealthy self-images in ourselves and our children?

“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.”

-- Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel

Source: Reported in the ‘Edmonton Journal’ in August, 2006 and drawn from a variety of sources.