'Renee', the main character of the movie, I Feel Pretty  is obsessed about flaws in her appearance that others can’t even see, and she keeps comparing herself with others. On top of that, Renee doesn’t have confidence in herself. These are the typical symptoms of the ‘Body Dysmorphic Disorder(BDD)’, which many people are experiencing nowadays. People who have this disorder keep obsessing over their face and body and think they have a lot of flaws. In addition, they look at their flaws several times or for several hours a day, and people with severe BDD sometimes scratch their own face.

 Recently, with the appearance and development of various social media outlets, some adults and young children are experiencing negative side effects due to social media overexposure. One typical effect of social media is Body Dysmorphic Disorder(BDD). When we watch skinny and beautiful celebrities, models and influencers on social media, we sometimes feel the desire to be like them. This kind of desire isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, if this desire gets stronger, we’ll start comparing ourselves with others and begin to see flaws that we didn’t see at first. Not only that, but we’ll start feeling bad about ourselves, too. This little change in our behavior and mind will continue to become beauty sickness later on. Nowadays there are even vlogs on YouTube about plastic surgery and extremely poor diets that let people lose a lot of weight in one week. Especially, in puberty, the time when people become concerned about their appearance, teenagers are negatively influenced from this sort of social media. As a result, the number of people who are experiencing side effects because of plastic surgery and suffering from eating disorders have increased. The biggest drawback is that these kinds of problems can happen to anyone regardless of age.

 On the other hand, the media doesn’t always have only negative effects. The proof is the movie called I Feel Pretty . This movie is a story about one woman who has beauty sickness and low self-confidence because she keeps comparing herself with others. However, in the latter part of the movie, she overcomes the beauty sickness and starts to love herself. She also starts to live a healthy life full of confidence. In the last speech scene in the movie, Renee says, “What if when someone tells us that we aren’t good or thin or pretty enough, we have the strength and the wisdom to say what I am is better than all that? Because what I am, is me! I’m me. And I’m proud to be me!”. We can get a step closer to finding our real beauty like Renee and knowing the importance of loving ourselves the way we are through the positive change of Renee in the movie.

                                         Before     →      After

When we were young, we wore clothes that we wanted to and danced freely to express that we are happy without being conscious of others and we showed ourselves proudly. However, as we grow up, we start to fit ourselves in the frame that other people make and begin to lose the real ‘me’. “That person is ugly; that person is beautiful and gorgeous.” These standards have emerged through illusions in the media. Despite these misleading standards, we shouldn’t focus too much on our flaws because we all have value that can’t be measured. If you are experiencing beauty sickness or Body Dysmorphic Disorder(BDD), many experts recommend getting help from a doctor or having a person close who can be helpful. However, the truly important thing is loving and treasuring yourself just the way you are. Then why don’t we develop trust, love and confidence in ourselves this year with the movie I Feel Pretty ?

79th Reporter • NAM HYE SEUNG • namhyeseung50@gmail.com