I want to be aVictoria’s Secret Angel. I want to be one of those models plastered on 10 by 10 foot posters in the store, or strutting down the runway at the brand’s annual fashion show. Who wouldn’t?

  Glossy magazines and fancy advertisements exude a sense of superiority and class that many aspire to achieve, contributing to an industry that has taken hold of teenage girls’ minds everywhere. Many young girls allow themselves to be judged based on the images that propagate this idealized image of what perfection looks like.

 The companies are unconcerned. It’s about how much they can sell and how many girls they can capture with their products. They act with a reckless disregard for the reality that they are actually harming their consumers.

  The cosmetic companies, clothing brands, and the rest of this industry work ‘hand in pocket’ with the dream merchants: advertisers. Advertisements are sent out to women everywhere, but taking the greatest toll on teenagers. The number of kids 18 and under having plastic surgery rose from just under 60,000 in 1997 to nearly 225,000 in 2003, according to research done by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. 

   The whole thing is a con. Magazines, billboards, and TV commercials act as a medium for superficiality, and the cosmetic companies take advantage of it. I open a magazine and see an ad for Covergirl Natureluxe, and think how luminous Taylor Swift looks, while convincing myself that the product will actually turn me into the 21-year-old celebrity. I will buy the product under that impression, but find myself looking in the mirror expecting much more. Yet, on the other hand, I am always shocked when I flip the page and see a story about a girl driven to anorexia, while just a page before I had bought into this idea of manufactured flawlessness. 

   It makes no sense. I am smart enough to see that the Covergirl foundation and the Secret Angel bra ads are not realistic portrayals of women. But despite my knowledge of the truth, I find myself buying into this illusion of perfection in an all-but-perfect world. Every year, I still watch theVictoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and every year I still fall for their gimmick.

Written by: Bianca Lazar on January 4, 2012.