I think we must distinguish between what advertising portrays (and I lump all television shows and movies into "advertising") and what people really do in their real lives. I just read about a survey done with college women who were first measured for self-esteem (however one does that) and then looked at pictures either of models or pictures of colleagues and then were again asked questions designed to guage their self-esteem.

The ones who looked at svelte models showed no decrease in self-esteem; the ones who looked at svelte colleagues did.

Not sure what this proves, but it is suggestive that some people (some college women, anyway) are able to distinguish between advertising and reality.

Now if there were some way to make people happy with themselves and not compare themselves to others, I would surely force-feed it to my daughter. Alas, there doesn't seem to be a quick and easy cure. So one continues the slow process of affirming her whenever and wherever one can.

Being a parent isn't for wimps.

Alex