Dove launched a study to understand women and girls around the world. Low beauty confidence and appearance anxiety is a critical issue and women around the world desire a new beauty definition.
- The Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report interviewed 10,500 females across 13 countries and found that women's confidence in their bodies is on a steady decline, with low body esteem, becoming a unifying challenge shared by women and girls around the world - regardless of age or where they are living.
- There is a strong desire amongst females for the media to challenge existing beauty norms, with 71% of women and 67% of girls wanting a change in the portrayal of women - to include those of a different age, race, size and shape.
- The report is the third of its kind, following on from a study in 2004 and again in 2010.
- 85% of women and girls 79% say they would opt out of an important life activity such as trying out for a team or engaging with family or loved ones when they don't feel good about the way they look.
- 7 in 10 girls with low body-esteem say they won't be assertive in their opinion or stick to their decision if they aren't happy with the way they look, whilst 9 out of 10 women will stop themselves eating or will otherwise put their health at risk.
- Women and girls cite increasing pressures from advertising and media to reach an unrealistic standard of beauty as a key force in driving appearance anxiety, while 56% of all women recognise the impact of an 'always on' social media culture in driving the pressure for perfection.
- Nearly 8 in 10 of both women and girls feel some pressure to never make mistakes or show weakness.
These kind of facts and statistics show how feeling bad about the way you look doesn't just make you sad, it actually effects everyday life and in some cases has long terms effects on someone, creating eating disorders and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression which makes it hard to have a normal life working etc.
