Should Celebrities really be our inspiration?

As we all know celebrities are very popular and everything that they say or do goes onto magazines and newspapers. Ofcourse the media exaggerates their stories for better publicity. But should we really be following the steps of the celebrities? Most celebrities are either on drugs, alcoholics or anorexic in order to keep their bodies in ''shape''. The things they do is only because they want to get noticed. Heidi Montag recently got plastic surgery because she did not feel beautiful enough in her own skin, but what ind of message is she trying to send to her fans that look up to her? These sort of things make teenagers and young adults more eager to do irresponsible things. People need to realize that stars only do things to get their names in the newspaper and magazines to get themselves noticed. The media itself needs to see that the things they write about these celebrates young kids are reading ! What is the media trying to teach young kids?

Many young girls look up to celebrities as their inspiration and want to be just like them when they are older. Celebrities need to be more aware of the actions they take because the whole world is watching. If kids see a celebrity that they admire acting out they will think that it is okay for them to do the same thing. We watched Jamie Lynn Spears grow up on television from the show ''All That'', but as she got older she made some mistakes that were life changing and she was not able to take them back. She ended up getting pregnant. Many young girls that looked up to her as their role model were shocked just like the rest of the world. At the young age of sixteen she became a teenage mother. She did not realize that all the young girls that looked up to her were going to think that it was okay for them to do the same thing. A couple of weeks ago I was watching the Tyra Show and a fifteen year old girl was desperate to get pregnant, she was even taking pills to help her get pregnant. When Tyra asked her why she was so eager to get pregnant her response included that ''if Jamie Lynn can do it, so can I'', celebrities are our icons that we look up to for inspiration , but we really should not. Everyone makes mistakes and instead of following those mistakes we should learn from them. Stars and the media have to be more careful and aware about what they post on magazines because the whole world is watching especially young teenage kids. Young kids should not look up to most stars as their inspiration because celebrities only do the things they do to be in the spotlight. Celebrities should see how their actions effect young kids and think about the things that they do.

We always see celebrities on television and they look beautiful with all their makeup and their expensive clothes and cars, and all they ever tell us about is how sex, smoking and stuff like anorexia are actually good things. We never really see stars actually telling us not to have sex and not to do drugs, and the reason is because that stuff is so powerful in our society today that it sells. Things like this are the types of negative ideas that are given to teens from the stars. Stars only want to sell things to make money. Celebrities should not be the people we look up to for inspiration because they are constantly in the spotlight and all that pressure can make them do stupid things.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4147961.stm

The fact that she looks so happy about being a teenage mom and saying that " being a mom is the best thing in the world" will make kids think they can do the same thing and be just as happy as she is.

This is how much celebrities effect a teenagers life ! We are willing to do anything to either be skinny, pretty, fit in with everyone else, or just to get a guy to like you .

What we need to know about AIDS/HIV...

Most people are aware of HIV and AIDS but are to afraid to get themselves checked. Some people think that using a condom will prevent them from getting HIV or AIDS, which is not true. Condoms do not protect people from getting sexually transmitted diseases. Some people are born with AIDS or HIV but most people get it through sexual intercourse. HIV is a virus that slowly attacks the immune system cells and eventually over time causes AIDS. HIV will infect the human cells and will use that energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce. HIV damages the cells in your body, the body then will become more open to the infections, which will make it harder for your body to fight it. It can take many years for HIV to damage the immune system, once th immune system is damaged HIV will turn into AIDS. It is insane that most people living might not even know they have AIDS or HIV for over 10 or 15 years! Someone would be diagnosed with AIDS when they have a symptom called an opportunistic infection, or an AIDS related cancer. Someone can still have AIDS even if they have not developed the opportunistic infection.

There is no cure for AIDS, the only way we can prevent ourselves is to know how HIV is transmitted and try to stay away from any sexual intercourse. Millions of people get diagnosed with HIV or AIDS every year and they do not even know it. Most teenagers are either afraid or embarrased to go to a clinic and get themselves checked. There is absolutly no cure for this disease but most people choose to ignore this fact and put their lives at risk. Many kids need to be more aware about the symptoms and the causes of these diseases. In the U.S., 7 in 10 women have sex before the age of 14. About 30% of males have sex before the age of 15 years old, compared with 66% of 18 years old. This just shows that teenagers are sexually active before graduating high school and they need to be more ware about the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. We need to be more informed about sexually transmitted diseases. Most teenagers do not even know all the sexually transmitted diseases. Parents should be more concerned about their children and what their children do. Most kids have sex before graduating high school, however they are not informed about these diseases. There should be classes about diseases that can be spread through sexual intercourse because most teens are clueless when it comes to a topic like this.

Ways you can get AIDS or HIV

The most common ways to get AIDS are:

* Having sex with a person who already has HIV or AIDS

* Sharing drug needles with someone who has HIV or AIDS.

*You can also get HIV from a blood transfusion, if the HIV is in the blood.

* Using steroids and drugs

Sex of adults and adolescents with HIV/AIDS diagnosed during 2007

Age of persons with HIV/AIDS diagnosed

Estimated numbers of AIDS diagnoses, deaths, and persons living with AIDS, 2003–2007

		2003		2004		2005		2006		2007		Cumulativeª
AIDS diagnoses		38,893		37,633		36,127		35,695		35,962		1,018,428
Deaths of persons with AIDS		17,082		16,570		16,249		14,989		14,110		562,793
Persons living with AIDS		372,136		393,200		413,077		433,783		455,636		N/

The influence Violent television has on kids...

Television and advertisements influence the lives of many young kids in different types of ways. We can all agree that television influences us in many aspects of our lives. It is scary the amount of influence that television has on us. As young adults we are easily convinced about things and we never bother to question anything or anyone's authority. Violence television is effecting the minds of children in various ways. Television is what shapes the behavior of kids. If we allow kids to watch such violence shows all they will really learn is how to fight, kill, and harm others.Is that what we want kids to learn? There have been several of studies on children watching violence television and kids that watch violence TV become immune to the violence, some eventually start to use violence as a way to solve their problems, while others will even try to imitate the violence that they witness on television! Our kids can become victims or even victimizers of certain crimes because of violence television. Watching violence television shows can make kids more aggressive.

Television is a major influence on the American Life. The things we watch define the type of person we are. It is scary to believe that it is proven that television has a greater influence on young kids than adults do. Is that how it is supposed to be? If young kids are watching violent shows, they will start to want to try these things on their own which will bring more violence in our society. Television takes time away from other things such as reading, exercise, and social activities. If we spend the same amount of time reading as we do to watching television we would be considered genius's! Television has the ability to influence people mainly young kids with harmful and violent impressions of the world. Many kids that end up doing harmful things to others, usually do it because of the violent shows that they watch. Parents should be concerned about the amount of time we should spend watching television. Does watching too much television cause poor performance in school? Kids are to focused on television rather than on their school work which is much more important. Parents need to be more concerned about the type of shows that their kids are watching. Kids that watch these violent shows end up hurting other because they believe it is okay to do that. We need to show our kids that violence is never the answer, so we should control what they are watching.

8:00-9:00 PM	1998	2002
Fight	44%	32%
Blood	0%	9%
Guns & Other Weapons	29%	38%
Crashes, Explosions, Fire	6%	5%
Threats of Violence	7%	5%
Graphic Depictions	10%	1%
Deaths Depicted	4%	5%
Deaths Implied	0%	3%
Torture	0%	2%