Many women as young as six years old often base their image of the ideal look, size and weight on pictures of models seen in magazine advertisements. The average American is exposed daily to anywhere from 400 to 600 advertisements, which includes newspapers, magazines, television and radio. Out of these, one in eleven advertisements make a direct statement relating to beauty and many others imply the importance of beauty as a factor in achieving success. Consumers are exposed to ads in magazines, such as Vogue or Glamour, that use ridiculously thin and "waif like" female models to sell a product. Advertisements emphasize thinness as a standard for female beauty. The portrayal of models in advertisements invokes a mentality that such ideals are common or favorable and often causes females to have a poor self-image. .
On the contrary, the figures of the models portrayed in advertisements are ridiculously unattainable by the average female. Fashion models are reported as being 23% under what is considered "normal" weight and only 5% of the female population even naturally possesses the idealized lean body figure. A session of the program 20/20 on ABC presented the extensive two-hour editing process after a photo shoot for model Cindy Crawford. Photos are digitally altered, air-brushed and any blemishes of the skin or imperfections are removed to create a flawless picture. The appearance of any fat cells and even inches can be removed from the model in a photo. However, after viewing photos of models in advertisements women often feel unattractive, fat and in some cases old. A survey conducted by Teen Magazine found that 27% of the girls felt that the media pressures them to have a perfect body. Sixty nine percent of females in another study indicated that models influence their idea of the perfect body. Whether asked to or not, women often reference models in conversations regarding their body image and often compare themselves to models in expressing their weight loss goals.
