Magazines are Trying to Kill You

No, no, I didn't come across a knife-wielding magazine recently. Unfortunately, it's much worse than that. If you are male or female, 10 years old or 90 years old, rich or poor, you, my friend, are a target. Chances are you didn't even know how aggressively magazine producers have been victimizing you. I want you to think about the last time that you were in the grocery store check-out line and scanning what I like to call the "impulse buy" shelves. Scattered next to the candy, assorted magazines vied for your attention. Their silent screams were communicating things to you that you would never receive if they were uttered from a friend, family member, co-worker, or even a stranger. 

You need to lose weight. 

You need better clothes. 

Don't even think about leaving the house without make-up.

Don't you dare age. 

You're not sexy enough.

You aren't worth anything without ______.

I'm not questioning your intelligence. In the back of your mind, the idea that you might be letting a magazine define your worth probably seems outrageous. But is it really? 

Studies done by the National Institute on Media and the Family show that largely due to the image of women portrayed on magazines (which is getting thinner and thinner, by the way), by age 13, 53% of girls in America are "unhappy with their bodies." By the age of 17, this number grows to 78%. Learn more here.

Take a look at what magazines call "beautiful." 

Evolution

Body Evolution

There is nothing real about the counterfeit "beauty" that magazines are selling. Imitation beauty sells because it is cheap. True beauty comes from within, but unfortunately our culture is such that we worship physical appearance. Ironically, and I know this from personal experience, the more make-up you buy and the more fad diets you try, it is never enough. Why? Because you're trying to attain something that doesn't exist. Magazines and the media are trying to kill everything that makes you unique. They seek to strip you of your you-ness so that you become a shell, empty of life and joy and zeal and full of discontentment, jealousy, and hopelessness. If they can just do that, then they have you. Don't buy into it. Don't let them win. Don't trade your life for an airbrushed one.