Survey

I created an anonymous online survey that I had fifteen 8th grade girls, both 13 and 14 year olds, answer six questions that touch on the topic of body image and the media. 
Survey


Questions

1. How old are you?
2. Are you completely satisfied with your physical appearance?
3. Is there anything about your physical appearance that you wish you could change? If so, what is it?
4. Do you ever compare the way you look to women in media (models, actresses, athletes, etc) ?
5. Does looking at advertisements of women lower your self esteem?
6. Would you like to see more average sized models in magazines rather than extremely skinny ones?

Results

1.

13: 40%
14: 60%

2.

Yes: 33.3%
No: 66.7%

3. Responses to: Is there anything about your physical appearance that you wish you could change? If so, what is it?

• "I wish that I wasn't as skinny as I am."
• "I like that I am skinny. I want to look like the older girls do though."
• "Everything. I just want to look like everyone else in my grade and not be the biggest anymore."
• "Boobs. I don't have any. I want bigger ones."
• "Stomach."
• "Hips."
• "No."
• "My face, I have a lot of acne."
• "Boobs they are too big."
• "No. My boyfriend and everyone in school thinks i'm pretty."
• "My face and body."
• "Stomach."
• "Everything."
• "No, I love the way I look."
• "Tummy."

4.

Yes: 60%
No:13.3%
Sometimes: 26.7%

5.

Yes: 80%

No: 20%

6.

Yes: 66.7%

No: 13.3%

Maybe: 20%

• The part of the results that I found to be the most interesting was in relation to the last question and how 13.3% of the girls wouldn't like to see average size models in magazines instead of skinny ones. I would have been interesting to follow up and hear their reasoning behind their answer.