All adolescents are susceptible to the psychological phenomenon known as 'the imaginary audience'. What this means is that most teenagers are extremely concerned with what others think of them because at this stage they really believe that everyone is constantly watching them, analyzing them, and making judgments about them.

The small zit on the forehead, the stain on the shirt; these are small issues that most people never notice about someone but teenagers feel it will be the only thing another person notices. This idea of believing everyone is watching them always slips into body image issues as well. Teenagers feel the strong desire to fit in and be like their peers; if their peers are striving to look like super models then they will feel the need to try to do the same.

Couple this idea of an imaginary audience (called such because people generally don't notice what teenagers fear they will.) with a society obsessed with being sickly skinny, wearing expensive clothes, and conforming to a certain trend and you can see some serious image issues teenagers may have with themselves.

The best way to 'treat' this is to let the teenager know that they are unique and should express themselves as they see fit. They should also be made aware that everyone has imperfections and issues such as acne but be careful not to say 'no one cares'. Because telling a teenager no one cares is like telling them that no one will notice them. Its an odd situation because while the teen fears everyone is watching them at the same time they don't want to feel like no one is noticing them.

Teenagers will still do and believe in what they please, the best one can do is show teenagers that the Hollywood image is not the perfect image or the only image. Most will grow out of this stage in one piece, but be aware of sudden diet changes, weight loss/weight gain, or moods. These changes may be a sign of depression, drug use, binge eating, anorexia, exhaustion, etc. It can be tough being a teenager with all the mixed signals one receives from society, the media, parents, friends, and peers.

Learn more about this author, Maxwell Payne.
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