Perfection Speech

Pressure to Perfection

Alarm goes off, I wake up and take a shower, I brush my hair, brush my teeth, I can't stand looking anything less than perfect. I check my homework to make sure the answers are right I have to be number one in my class. Its lunch time I get made fun of again and I don't know why I did everything I could to look perfect yet the hatred still comes. I go home pull out the blade, hold it to my wrist and cut. It was a way for me to release the shame I had on my own body for not fitting the "perfect" criteria. This is a tragic scenario teens face more often than they should. Now a days there's a ton of pressure to meet impossible standards to look right, be smart, thin, athletic, talented, and popular. Many of us feel we have to be every one of those things to everyone, it doesn't have to be that way when the pressure to be perfect is overwhelming take a deep breath and remind yourself your amazing the way you are, and you don't need to go to extensive lengths to look a certain way. These extensive lengths have gotten way out of proportion and it isn't worth it.

In Japan, they currently have the largest amount of suicide rates amongst teens. Why? Well students feel they have to be smarter than all the rest, and when the competition gets hard students would rather kill themselves than try to meet such a standard. According to the National Police Agency the number of elementary school kids who killed themselves doubled from 7 to 14. In middle school figures increased from 15 to 81, and from 5 to 220 in high school. In the notes police report kids felt pressured and overwhelmed because they could not perform to the standards their parents, and teachers wanted them too. Now you may be thinking okay so Japan has some suicidal kids who cares if you're not doing that well in school. Truth is right now one of your fellow classmates feels these pressures every day. He cannot handle it anymore. These pressures have made him unsociable, and made him create 12 different personalities. It not worth it.

"I did it because I felt like I had to get a scholarship, without one my whole family would be disappointed. I felt my body just wasn't performing the way kids who get a scholarship bodies perform." Says 12th grade high school student who chooses to remain anonyms. Steroids officially known as anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) is most commonly seen in body building. AAS is also prevalent in non-bodybuilding circles when there is dissatisfaction with ones physique, a desire to shed unwanted fat, or the need to gain additional muscle mass. Former football player at Birmingham high school exclaims, "I wanted the body of a 25 year-old professional athlete at the age of 16. What I didn't understand was that at 16 I was still growing." According to the Monitoring the Future Survey by the University of Michigan in 2006 2.7% of high school teens reported they had tried steroids at least once in their lifetime. Not only are steroids illegal when playing any sport but the health risks are deadly. AAS can cause cardio vascular disease, liver malfunctions, the growth of tumors in your liver, malignant cancers, peliosis hepatitis, mood swings, increased aggression, depression, nervousness, and irritability. It's not worth it.

"I feel like if you're not skinny, you don't have a good body and that means you're not good enough." These are the words of one of your classmates; this classmate could be sitting right next to you. It's sad isn't it? That one of your peers has to feel that way? Well she/he is not alone. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders 8,000,000 or more people in the United States have an eating disorder 90% are women. According to the Center for Mental Health Services 90 percent of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 to 25. Anorexia is one of these disorders. Anorexia is when people have a real fear of weight gain