Social media is on the rise. Expectations are high; Teenagers suffer from societal standards.  

Academic validation – Schools implement different aspects that a child is expected to “need” to know, one of them being academic validation. It is often described as your only value, pushing the idea that you should focus solely on grades while degrading your sense of self-discovery. Schools often place academic pressure on students, discouraging them from exploring their true selves.  

Yes, as a child, you need to focus on grades, but your grades and school achievements are not your only identity or source of value as a teenager. You are not an object to be bid on by every college. As a teenager, you are discovering yourself, your worth, and who you really are. Intense pressure is exerted on teenagers, as well as children as young as seven, who are told they must excel beyond everyone else. This degrades self-esteem just to achieve “greatness.” As a teenager, your mental health is treated as unimportant compared to your academic honors. Your achievements become your entire identity, which is hypocrisy.  

Beauty- Media is dangerous. It is a toxic place where children exist. Media beauty standards create a harmful environment that spreads into teenagers’ minds like a parasite that refuses to leave.  

Beauty standards have evolved throughout history. Fat, skinny, hourglass, and pear-shaped bodies have all been considered “ideal” in different timelines of female beauty. The term beauty standard shouldn’t exist due to the insecurity it creates, yet it is influenced by culture, spirituality, and economic conditions of the time. Society dictates how you are treated based on your appearance. If your features don’t match the standard, society shuns you, making you feel worthless. The media mocks people for their looks and enforces unrealistic standards that everyone is expected to follow, like everyone should look the same. It promotes eating disorders, something I have personally experienced.  

Here’s the truth about beauty standards: every place is different. 
You could be considered pretty in America but ugly in Asia. 
You could be considered ugly in Africa but pretty in South America.  

The media is ugly. Beauty standards are disgusting. But you are pretty.  

Social standards-  

Perfectionism is a dangerous word that society abuses. As a teenager, you’re expected to already know what you want in life, have perfect grades, great achievements, a constant positive mood, and still be a bit naïve.  

As an adult, you’re expected to have life figured out. Be financially stable, live in a good environment, and be fully mature.  

Everyone is different. These expectations are unrealistic. Personally, as a female teenager, there is already pressure to look good and behave like a fully developed adult woman. Teenagers are grown children who are still developing at different paces. The judgment, shame, and insecurity teenagers face are already overwhelming, yet society and social media seem to ignore that.  

Adulthood simply means you are no longer a child, but that doesn’t mean you stop growing or learning. Everyone develops differently, some faster, some slower. People are not copy-and-paste. Individuality is what makes people interesting, which society often forgets.  

People themselves are the true horror of judgment.