Along with the growing economy in media, suicide has too. Pictures posted onto billboards, into magazines, on bus shelters and everywhere else of tiny models have people, mostly teens, feeling self-conscious.
People have been taught that being beyond skinny is in fact beautiful, and that having a little bit of meat on our bones puts us into the category of fat and ugly. And, with pictures posted everywhere it is hard to ignore.
These things provoke bullying, and lead to cases of self-harm and suicide. It was only weeks ago that a close friend of mine tried to commit suicide partly because of self-consciousness.
It seems nowadays that most people know at least one person who self-harms or has either attempted or succeed in committing suicide.
I wrote this article to raise awareness to suicide and while writing this I kept in mind that media is not the cause of suicide and bullying, but it has done a big part in provoking it. And the provoking has gone far enough that people I know closely are becoming affected. Keep an open mind about what you see, because it is not all truths.
Jessica Read, Abbotsford
