Del Rio News Herald

There are numerous trends set by the stars; Jennifer Aniston’s hair in the 90’s sent women into a craze. Numerous women wanted the “it” haircut that they saw on their favorite “Friend.”

In this day and age, celebrities are younger and younger and thus so are their fans.

Adolescents are easily influenced and can be swayed very quickly.

For stars like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears the calamity seems never-ending.

A parent has to ask whether this will have an effect on their child.

These young celebrities are dealing with arrests, alcoholism, drug addiction and aggression, all before our very eyes.

With more and more voyeuristic advances such as You Tube and Myspace, our youth are being exposed to celebrity mishaps all the time.

Frail thin bodies and barely-there clothes seem to be what’s in for Hollywood.

The mimicking begins as young girls everywhere, in an attempt to be like their idols, begin to starve themselves.

Does Hollywood have a responsibility or does that lie with the parents?

A standard has been set by celebrities and models that to be beautiful you have to be unrealistically thin.

To the majority of women who are, in fact, curvaceous and healthy, this is a problem. The message being sent is that to be attractive you must look sickly.

When did the protrusion of bones become desirable? Bulimia and anorexia are in fact quite realistic and very dangerous.

Numerous girls and, now tragically, boys as well are falling ill to these sicknesses in efforts to be attractive.

“I know girls that go days without eating just to fit into size 2 jeans,” says Vanessa Vasques. Vanessa is a 14-year-old girl who sometimes feels the pressure to be thin.

She goes on to say that, “I’m not concerned with what size I am, just as long as I feel healthy.”

It is not only affecting our youth though, even women and men feel the impact as well.

The pressure to lose the baby weight after one gives birth is a new dilemma that has been influenced by stars such as Angelina Jolie and Nicole Richie.

Only weeks after giving birth these stars were back in their skinny jeans and spaghetti strap shirts, at all cost it seems.

Some men also feel the need to be thin and go to the extreme to achieve it.

The term that we all should strive for is to be fit not necessarily thin.

If you have questions or comments email me at lizgarciais26(at)yahoo.com or on Myspace.

Editor’s Note: Fort Worth is a very large and busy city and that is where our new columnist Liz Garcia is from. She moved to Del Rio when she was 16 and fell in love with this charming city. “Del Rio has been fantastic to me,” states Liz.

She attended Del Rio High School and is currently a college student at Southwest Texas Jr. College.

She is married to Armando J. Garcia and together they have two children. Matthew is 7 and their youngest Gabriel is 4.

Garcia is majoring in Criminal Justice and one day hopes to attend Baylor Law where she can pursue a career as a prosecuting attorney. “I have met wonderful people here and I am extremely excited to be writing for the Del Rio News Herald,” says Liz.

Her column changes weekly and is as diverse as she is.

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