According to a study published in the journal BMC Public Health,
children as young as 10- and 11-years-old already have notions
about the ideal body. An analysis of more than 4,000 students
from Nova Scotia revealed that young girls’ happiness with their
body image is directly linked to how thin they are. Boys, on the
other hand, were happiest when they were neither too lean, nor
too heavy. Given that dissatisfaction with body image is
strongly linked with an increased risk for eating disorders, the
researchers were particularly concerned to find that the
perception of perfection began at such a young age. Overall,
7.3% of the girls included in the study reported that they
didn’t like they way they looked, but that increased
proportionately as girls’ weight, measured by body mass index
(BMI), went up. For girls with normal body weight, 5.7% reported
being unhappy with their bodies, among those who were
overweight, 10.4% did, and among girls who were categorized as
obese, 13.1% were unhappy with how they looke