Media’s role in body image

THE celebrity-driven “size zero” phenomenon is having “serious effects” on Ireland’s young people with more than 7,000 Irish teenagers now suffering from eating disorders, a leading expert will tell a conference in Cork today.

Chief executive of the Bodywhys support group, Jacinta Hastings, said the Government must take the issue more seriously.

Addressing a conference organised by the Cork Mental Health Foundation, Ms Hastings will warn that the power of magazines and televisions over young people’s body image is very strong.