How muscle-building imagery, supplement use can harm teen boys
A new documentary shines a spotlight on how body image pressures that boys experience from social media can damage their mental health and push them into disordered behaviors. The documentary—Generation Flex, produced by Men’s Health—features Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s S. Bryn Austin.
Austin directs STRIPED (Strategic Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders), a public health incubator that includes an initiative called the STRIPED Youth Corps, focused on youth advocacy training. The new documentary features the stories of four boys, including three members of the Youth Corps.
All of the highlighted teens felt pressured to bulk up from young ages. They engaged in obsessive weight-training, took supplements, and skipped meals. Some went on to experience physical problems: One boy’s muscles grew faster than his bones, resulting in severe back pain; another took diet pills that landed him in the hospital. Some experienced anxiety or depression. Yet another took caffeine pills to deal with fatigue and died of an overdose.
Austin, professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, studies boys, social media, and body image. She noted that visual social feeds draw teen boys in with images of hyper-muscular bodies—“something that’s not achievable for younger boys only partway through maturation.” Influencers push dietary supplements, which are not screened for safety or effectiveness before they go on the market. “What that means is that American consumers, and kids in particular, are the lab rats for the dietary supplements industry,” she said.
Watch the documentary: Generation Flex
