Fashion Pitfalls
If Barbie was real person she would have multiple flaws. First of all, with those half a pencil thin arms and legs, she is anorexic. Second, she would have go to a tanning bed at least three times a week to make her skin super tan, plus bleach her hair unnaturally blond. Obviously something is wrong if barbie is a child’s toy. The creators of Barbie needed something more beautiful than average women for kids look up to. What are children going to look up to in the future? Cosmetics and shampoos probably will have more drastic effects than they do now, or people are going to be photoshopped to skinny sticks. The hidden dangers in beauty are everywhere. Finding them takes patience and lots of snooping.

Everybody has heard those horror stories where people lose their hair due to the brand of shampoo they’re using. Sometimes these stories aren't true to gain attention. Where some people say the stories are true, the FDA says that there are things called pathalates, a group of chemicals found in lots of daily life products, that could possibly be harmful to hair. WebMd also says early brands of mascara made women go blind and loose eyelashes. Today some still have a dangerous ingredient called Thimerosal. Natural products are a better choice, but are all the ingredients natural? For example vanilla extract can't just be pure vanilla. Something is going to be mixed into the scent. Using homemade concoctions are safest, but these would probably smell bad, and be made out of food.

Random people off the streets, worked on for two hours, with lots of photoshopping, are the people on billboards. With today’s technology, anybody can look like a celebrity. Ridiculous infomercials with before and after pictures have the same problem. 20/20 news did a show on it. A professional talked about how freckles and noses changed places, shape, or have disappeared altogether. Natural skin “without makeup” on the before picture usually has some kind of cosmetic on to bring out the flaws. Models, along with professionals of every kind, probably always have makeup on or hair styled for the thousands of pictures they take. Maybe only five of the pictures turn out good and fake.

Style never stops evolving and changing, but it constantly gets more expensive. Just imagine what clothes will cost and look like in twenty years. The public continues to wear tank tops in the summer and almost nothing for swimming suits. Swimwear just keeps getting smaller every year. Whatever happened to full body suits that women used to wear swimming? Also some people pay two hundred dollars for a super thin top that I could make myself. On the internet, users of Voices agreed that children already are exposed to too many billboards and commercials that are inappropriate for their age. Slowly, kids are corrupted into thinking that someone can only be happy if they’re skinny, have the right clothes, and have lots of friends. Other students shun one another for not fitting the worlds criteria of fashion.

I try to look at things a different way, without all the dangers and gossip life would be peaceful but boring. With all the cosmetics, beautifiers, and photoshopping stories going around nobody would take the time to really find out if things were true, instead people choose to stay scared and uneducated. Think back to Barbie, she is the type of person who is going to be a wrinkly old grandma who has skin cancer and weight problems. Having the perfect house and boyfriend “made” just for you is not worth it, when later it comes crashing down. Just look at the shelves, where’s all her friends? Fashion can be dangerous and isn't worth the damage it does to everyone.