Almost all young women are sometimes insecure about their body; Third have daily issues

Being insecure about your body is the rule, rather than the exception, for young women. 94 percent sometimes feel insecure about the way they look, and 33 percent experience this daily, according to a survey by EenVandaag and SPILNEWS among 1,700 young people aged 16 to 35. This concerns body shape, not hair, skin, or face.

Women feel most insecure when they look at themselves in the mirror or in a photo (74%). The vast majority consider themselves too fat. In total, regardless of whether they struggle with body issues or not, 66 percent of women think they are too fat.

That is much less the case for young men, 35 percent of whom consider themselves too fat. They also deal with body issues much less, with only 1 in 10 feeling insecure every day.

Both women and men with body issues primarily blame their low self-esteem on themselves. But many also mention other factors. “Society glorifies thinness. Anything even slightly overweight is labeled ‘unhealthy’ and’ugly,’” one respondent said. 51 percent of young women and 37 percent of young men think society helped cause their insecurities.

Many young people also frequently compare themselves to others, especially on social media. 49 percent of young women and 24 percent of young men say that the image of the “perfect” body on social media contributes to their body insecurities. "It often seems like the thin girls on social media eat whatever they want and barely exercise to maintain their figure. Then I always think, 'Why am I not that?'"

The fashion industry is another often-blamed culprit, especially now that it is moving away from body positivity and size inclusion and back to thinner models. 93 percent of women consider this a negative development. The majority of young women said this affects their perception of beauty. 48 percent now consider “very thin” to be the ideal of beauty. “It promotes an unhealthy body as the norm,” one respondent said.

Young men are much less negative about the return to only thin models, and some even disapprove of the use of fuller-figured models. One in five consider the use of thinner models a positive development, compared to 4 percent of young women.