Does your child have appearance anxiety?

In recent years, appearance anxiety has been "encroaching" on the underage population through the expansion and transmission of the Internet. At the elementary school level, many children are already concerned about their faces and are becoming less confident about their appearance. Many adolescents are also very concerned about their appearance, body shape, and dressing, and use weight loss and cosmetics to relieve their appearance anxiety. Studies have also shown that appearance and body image anxiety has an impact on adolescents' self-awareness, academic life, and interpersonal communication. How can we understand the appearance anxiety of the "post-00" generation? How can we help teenagers relieve their anxiety and establish the right aesthetics? Let's take a look at what the experts have to say.

Analysis to guide children to discover their ownership points and unique beauty

Behind "appearance anxiety", is mainly due to the individual's self-perception bias and fear and worry about negative evaluation. Under the influence of such cognitive biases, individuals tend to be too demanding about their appearance and tend to overly magnify their appearance flaws or assign negative evaluations to certain appearance features. For example, they may think that single eyelids are not as good as double eyelids, or that "one fat person ruins everything".

The reason for appearance anxiety is that we all have the belief of an "imaginary audience", i.e. we believe that our every move is watched and evaluated. Because of the fear of being judged by others, the role of appearance is overstated. This characteristic is more pronounced in adolescents who are in the self-concept-building stage.

The formation of appearance anxiety is also closely related to commercial factors. The excessive promotion of A4 waist, slap face, and chopstick legs in various online media and idol dramas has led many people to fall into the trap of self-doubt and denial, and blindly follow the trend of consumption. Adolescents are quick to learn information, and the lack of correct value judgment in the flood of information will make them more vulnerable to anxiety.

As parents, we need to correctly understand the "beauty" performance of children. The fact that a child is concerned about his or her appearance is in itself very positive. This shows that he has self-esteem and wants others to see a better version of himself. Moderate attention to their appearance will also allow children to learn self-discipline, and training aesthetic skills, and has the effect of increasing self-confidence. Parents should remember not to suppress their children's "beauty" and make them think that focusing on their appearance is a superficial expression; otherwise, it will make their children's values and the real world deviate, and they may find it difficult to adapt to the many "appearance" requirements imposed on them by their environment in the future. At the same time, you need to guide your child to discover their shining points and unique beauty, learn to appreciate themselves, and enhance their self-confidence. Some children may have small eyes, big faces, and dark skin, but these are all characteristics of each person and are not flawed. Let your child realize that he or she is unique and deserves to be loved no matter what. When the child is full inside, he or she will be less overly concerned about appearance.

Tips for accepting oneself and paying more attention to "spiritual looks"

The love of beauty is in everyone's heart. It is everyone's instinct to pursue beauty, but it is not too much to ask. Nowadays, some children are troubled by "appearance anxiety", which seriously damages their physical and mental health and affects their academic life. As parents, we should try to guide our children to establish the correct aesthetic, so that they can pay more attention to "spiritual looks", and constantly improve their aesthetic ability, optimism, and self-confidence to be happy with themselves.

Guide to establishing the correct aesthetic. Parents should make their children realize that beauty is both objective and subjective. "There are no two identical leaves in the world", do not judge your appearance by the eyes of others. It is because of the great diversity of all things in the world that life is so rich and colorful. The process of pursuing beauty must be to maintain a positive and healthy mindset. To objectively evaluate oneself and be pleased with oneself; not to follow blindly, not to follow the trend, to identify and discard pathological beauty, and to strive for healthy and upward beauty. Parents should encourage their children more and help them build self-confidence.

Do pay more attention to spiritual looks. Parents should try to make their children realize that the looks of people are divided into physical appearance and spirituality. Beauty exists in the external image and is internalized in the spiritual appearance. Good spiritual looks include self-confidence, kindness, integrity, and honesty, but also tolerance, fun, and humor ...... the heart has a realm of action that is right, and the belly has a poetic book. The spiritual appearance of people is far more important than appearance. A person's spiritual looks, an unseen ability, determines a person's spiritual power and determines the image and progress of society. Parents should guide their children to devote more energy to the filling and perfection of the spiritual world, pay more attention to spiritual beauty, and establish good spiritual looks. To this end, parents should encourage their children to read more, read good books; to accompany their children, to cultivate their rich interests, so that children in the "read a million books, travel a million miles" in the perception of the vast and wonderful world, positive to run to a good life.

Tips for aestheticians and public opinion to guide young people's aesthetics

Nowadays, young people are growing up in an era when people's need for a better life is growing, and seeking beauty is an important expression of the pursuit of a better life. Moreover, in today's society, the value of "appearance association" is flowing rampant. In this sense, the "post-00" generation attaches importance to cosmetic surgery and even has "appearance anxiety", which we can understand as a normal phenomenon in the aesthetic exploration of teenagers.

Since they entered school, teenagers have started their aesthetic exploration process. Over the years, teenagers' aesthetic exploration has been guided by peer influence on the one hand, and by film and television works and celebrity idols on the other.

For example, in the Winter Olympics, Chinese Olympic athletes, whose words and actions organically blend strength and wisdom, robustness and femininity, show the beauty of strength, sunshine, and freshness, which are generally loved and emulated by today's youth groups. Of course, there are also phenomena of blurred aesthetic concepts and disorganized aesthetic behaviors among today's youth groups. This shows that the aesthetic exploration of teenagers needs to be guided effectively.

It is a good opportunity to guide the aesthetics of young people who are attracted to the healthy beauty embodied by Olympic athletes. However, who should guide them? How to guide? What is beautiful and what is not must be examined according to the "scale of beauty". Aestheticians are in a better position to guide young people in aesthetics, and they have a great deal to offer and a great deal of responsibility. Back then, Mr. Zhu Guangqian wrote "Twelve Letters to Youth" and "A Brief Discussion of Beauty", which influenced several generations of young people.

Today, guiding young people in aesthetics also requires the entrance of aestheticians and the guidance of social opinion. While exploring various aesthetic concepts and theories, aestheticians guide young people to analyze the essence of "sissy", to explore the cultural significance behind Li Ziqian's old crafts, the creativity implied in the transformation of old factories into creative parks, and to appreciate the healthy beauty displayed by Olympic athletes. At the same time, the guidance of social opinion and the extensive publicity of youth role models in the media will strongly promote the improvement of the aesthetic level of youth.

The beauty of youth is not in face value

At the level of moral and aesthetic education in schools, students need to be guided to establish a correct aesthetic point of view, improve aesthetic judgment, and enhance their cultivation and character.

Mr. Lao, once said that a truly beautiful person is not overly adorned and does not wear fancy clothes. Schools should let students understand that dress and hairstyle need to match their age and occupation through the flag-raising ceremonies, thematic class meetings, art classes, career classes, and other related activities or courses, and guide students to find the beauty that matches their age and occupation characteristics. There are specific needs for external grooming. For example, athletes need to wear sportswear to show the beauty of their bodies, the beauty of sports, and the beauty of challenging the limits; celebrities wear alternative fashionable make-up because their profession dictates that they need to draw the attention of the media and celebrity followers by being different and showing the beauty of fashion trends. In this regard, cosmetic surgery, makeup, accessories, and fancy clothes are incompatible with the status of secondary school students.

The secondary school stage is the most important stage to grow in knowledge and talent and is the prep stage to realize your dreams. Too much attention to external grooming can take up a lot of time and energy and can affect overall development. In addition, young people should be fully aware that their bodies are not yet fully developed and that cosmetic surgery and makeup can cause irreversible physical damage, and that some accessories can cause injury to themselves or others during sports. This is why the "Secondary School Code of Conduct" calls for external appearance such as makeup. When students understand the underlying reasons, they will abide by the rules and respect them, and education will truly serve as a value guide.

Schools can use multiple assessments to lead students' understanding of beauty through a collaborative parenting mechanism of the home, school,d community. For example, our school will select the most beautiful people in Jiaotong University High School, including the "seven beauties" - the beauty of civilized manners; the beauty of compliance; the beauty of respect for elders and children; the beauty of optimism and hard work; the beauty of knowledge and good thinking; the beauty of volunteerism; the beauty of love for work. In this process, the leadership of role models shows students the true beauty of youth!

I think the beauty of secondary school students should have their look: "beauty" is reflected in the character, patriotism, ideals and beliefs, the spirit of science, respect, and dedication; "beauty" is reflected in the appearance, grooming, natural, simple and clean, lively and cheerful, showing the youth. Beauty" is reflected in physical appearance, generous and natural, simple and clean, lively and cheerful, showing youthful vigor and charm; "beauty" is reflected in physical appearance, as Premier Zhou said: standing like a pine, sitting like a bell, walking like the wind, lying like a bow; "beauty" is reflected in speech and behavior, courteous, sunny and tolerant, diligent and studious, full of sense of righteousness and positive energy. As the English writer Bacon said, virtue is like a precious stone, which is more beautiful against a simple background. We need to teach students to put the "virtue of beauty" in the first place, the beauty of youth is not in the face but in the character of my youth.