"It’s society. You look at the magazines and see all these beautiful girls with their flawless faces and perfect bodies. I look at those magazines and see my face isn’t as pretty as hers and I think , OK, I need to lose weight. I need to work out. Society puts that on us. Sex sells, that’s how they sell their products."
—Karla Valdez, 15, Bishop Conaty—Our Lady of Loretto
"Girls compare themselves to each other."
—Emily Ng, 14, South Pasadena
"The daughter sees the mom dressing up and going to the gym and she wants to be like her. Girls who are 11, 12 years old are doing it. You have 14-year-olds who look 16. They feel pressure to get dressed up, dress sexy and they don’t even know what sex is. They’re too young to be doing that. They should enjoy life."
—Julio Huerta, 18, Los Angeles Community College
"It’s what the world expects."
—Iliana Guevara, 17, Birmingham HS
How do you feel when you look in the mirror?
"I wake up every morning and I go, ‘I’m losing myself.’ But then I step back to realize and go, ‘You have a wonderful boyfriend, Zanney’ and I get up and I go to school."
—Suzanne "Zanney" Sperber, 14, El Camino Real HS
"I’m OK, sometimes I feel I could look better. Sometimes I could look a little worse. People shouldn’t really care how you look because it’s really superficial."
—Katherine Hernandez, 16, Marshall HS