What could possibly motivate anyone to starve themselves almost to death, exercise to the point of exhaustion, and spend hours in front of the mirror? Beauty, and the impact it can have on your social “acceptability.” Unfortunately, peer pressure makes this the ultimate dream of many girls.

The messages that pop culture sends about being thin at any cost and using plastic surgery to “fix” what’s already beautiful are ludicrous and hurtful.

And it starts, well, almost harmlessly.

From the instant girls are old enough to play with Barbies or Bratz, their view of what defines a beautiful body is skewed. An average woman’s height and weight are 5 feet 4 inches and 145 pounds, respectively. If Barbies were life sized, they would be 6 feet and weigh 101 pounds.

When girls are old enough to use the Internet without their parents watching over their shoulders, it gets worse.

Virtual “fashion” sites like missbimbo.com (“become the coolest, richest, and most famous bimbo in all the world!”) indoctrinate girls as young as 7 to believe in the “importance” of dieting and plastic surgery. Breast implants are a given and clothes must be sexy.

I’m not sure young boys are exposed to such dumb and demeaning sites. Violent games aren’t great, of course, but they’re not as self-damaging.

Guys have it easier. Rape and abuse aren’t as big of a concern for boys as they are for girls. Girls deal with tighter curfews and nosier parents. Unfortunately, it is necessary. There's no way that I can ride my bike back home from a friend's house late at night. But a boy can. They have much more freedom.

And, of course, there are the stresses that come with puberty — periods, a changing body, and the terrifying thought of accidental pregnancy — which girls generally have to deal with on their own. We get stereotyped as catty, selfish, and prissy; boys are jocks, sometimes geeks, but there’s a lot of room in between, whereas girls generally are forced into some category or other. On top of this, if a girl kisses a boy she’d be called names, whereas boys are called “men.”

We aren’t tied down by corsets or bustles anymore. Just like guys, we can do sports, are encouraged to do well in school, and strive for success. However, we still have to be beautiful and we still have to be nice. The stereotypes and stresses still tie us down.

It’s so much harder for us.