My Documentary - Amelia Goodhead's "Just As I Am" campaign

As a significant part of my 5 minute documentary, I want to look at the affects of social media on body image and the virtual idealisation of beauty and perfectionism. In order to do this, I really want to focus on a vlogger who I really look up to and I believe is an inspiration to our society. Her name is Amelia Goodhead and her channel name is 'xameliax' on YouTube. A few months ago, she posted the image you can see above on Instagram with two pictures, both of her on holiday - one as she is and another edited. She then goes onto explain how people can easily edit photographs in order to create a false perception of beauty in a way that creates the perfect online persona of themselves.

This is the video that accompanied Amelia's Instagram post, as well as a

blog post - all of which discussed this campaign and what Amelia

wants to gain from it.

Amelia's video about the 'Just As I Am' campaign

Ultimately, I believe there is an evident aim from Amelia to help promote body positivity, in order to try and get young girls to appreciate who they are and embrace it! Even if we do have imperfections, we shouldn't shame ourselves for it as this is part of what makes us unique and ourselves. It may also be seen as making people aware that not everyone is as flawlessly, impossibly perfect as they appear in photographs - maybe some people are - but most of the time it is as a result of an edited photo. Moreover, even alongside these edited photos, young girls especially will still add captions where they complain of their supposed "chubby cheeks" or the fact that they "shouldn't have taken the picture cos the lighting looks bad" or "the angle looks disgusting". For some people, this can make them feel annoyed and even more insecure, but that's why young girls often add these captions.
The media's often dramatised idealisation of the 'perfect' image could be considered key in creating insecurities within young girls - hence why Amelia's campaign is of (to me) such high importance.

However, these are all indeed assumptions and, therefore, this felt the perfect opportunity to try and gain Amelia's own views and experiences regarding this topic. As a result, this lead me onto sending an email to Amelia asking herself if she would like to have an interview in person, she very kindly replied and has accepted my offer. I am extremely happy and looking forward to including the words of such an inspirational woman in my documentary.

Amelia's 'Just As I Am' campaign featured in 'The Daily Mail'.

Her campaign also featured within 'ViralPax' online.

My Coursework - Research behind the documentary

For my coursework, I wish to complete a 5 minute documentary covering the media, body image and the affects this has on young people in our society; for both genders. I want to cover the issues of the media itself in contributing to the mass exposure of idealism and perfection through processes such as digitisation that - as a result - have allowed society (children and young adults in particular) to be free to roam vast numbers of social media sites which highlight the supposed ideals of what 'perfection' is. I also wish to look at just what the possible consequences of this can be; such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
In order to do this, I have researched and looked at a range of articles that include different views, and facts and figures to highlight the severity of such a topic. The pages I looked at were;
1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29569473
which stated things such as;
- the media are at the prime blame of portraying the ideal body image which courses confidence issues.
- but how do they mould our attitudes?
- "2013 - 2/3rds of teenagers signed up to Facebook, where images are posted and shared millions of times a day."
- "2012 - MP's recommended that all school children should take part in compulsory body image and self-esteem lessons."
- girls as young as five are worrying about size and appearance.
- 60% of public feel ashamed of their looks.
- "MP's said pressure to look good had pushed up cosmetic surgery rates by 20% since 2008."

2)https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders
which stated things such as;
- in a typical day, 8-18 year olds engage with some form of social media for 7.5 hours.
- increases level of exposure to the idea of perfection and idealism.
- despite not being the main cause, research has proven it to have an influence on eating disorders,
- highly affects body dissatisfaction?ideal internalisation.
- which may suggest such long-term exposure via mass media has influence.

3) http://www.elle.com/beauty/tips/a2531/how-instagram-is-ruining-our-self-esteem/
which stated things such as;
- one woman (who has 131000 Instagram followers) posted a picture saying she often hides half her face due to feeling insecure.
- made author think about how we all attempt to hide flaws that are invisible to others in order to create the perfect online persona.
- "has friends who pose certain ways to hide 'chubby cheeks'/ ask people to take pictures down as they 'don't like the angle'."