Reality TV sheds light on body image problem

Recently, cast members in two of MTV's hit series have encountered issues about their weight. Callie Walker from "The Real World XXIII: Washington D.C." broke into tears after house roommate Tyler Duckworth commented on how she wasn't skinny enough to be a model for Playboy. Tyler's ignorance of Callie's previous struggle with her body image caused the rest of the girls to admit their own insecurities and show Callie that she wasn't alone.

Similarly, when Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi from "Jersey Shore" asked for a roll at the table in a restaurant, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino replied, "Don't worry, you've got a couple." The house members stared in shock at Mike, and Snooki left to cry in the bathroom until Jenn "J-Woww" Farley tried to console her. Like Callie, Snooki admitted to having an eating disorder in high school that she had barely gotten over.

"I would only have lunch, and I would only have salads," Snooki told Insider in an interview. "It got so crazy that I would only eat a cracker or a cucumber a day and I would feel full. My parents told me, 'You need to eat, this is very dangerous.' So I gained my weight back to like 98 where I always was."Callie, however, grew up with a mother whose job was a fitness trainer. She said it was extremely hard having her mother comment about her weight and diet all her life, so she's always been conscious of what she eats and how often she exercises. But although not all mothers hassle their daughters about their image, eating disorders are drastically hurting women across the nation.

According to a new study conducted by the Universite de Montreal and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, 10 to 15 percent of women have eating disorders; about 13.7 percent of women interviewed admitted to binge eating one to five days or one to seven times per month, while 2.5 percent said they force themselves to vomit or use laxatives or other diuretics to stay in shape. The study also found that 28 percent of women do extreme exercising twice a month, showing they may be overly distressed about their weight.

But besides the frightening statistics, we've seen this when women and girls we know (and ourselves) obsess over their weight. In the locker room at a gym where I work out, girls with beautiful bodies stand on the scales and constantly weigh themselves. My own friends say comments like "I've got to hit the gym for that summer body!" and while it's great that they want to stay fit, I always try to remind them not to stress about it too much.

In today's society, it's easy to compare yourself to the idealistic view of what society considers to be attractive. Models and actresses show us what the "perfect" body looks like and the trendy lifestyle that comes with it. But if you constantly pick at your flaws and force yourself to look better, you're only hurting yourself. We've got to remind ourselves and the people we love that the only way we'll feel happy and beautiful is if we accept ourselves for who we are and embrace what make us different.