During Sravya Cherukuri’s first few months at Chapman, she noticed that trying to live up to conventional beauty standards damaged her self-esteem on a daily basis.

“I realized this a couple months ago, when I was looking in the mirror and I thought, ‘Wow, I ridicule myself a lot,’” said Cherukuri, an undeclared freshman. “There has never been a day when I can look at myself and say, ‘I’m beautiful’ with confidence.”

There is a substantial amount of pressure on Chapman students to dress up and fit in with ideal beauty norms, Cherukuri said. After writing an English paper about the effects of body perceptions, Cherukuri decided to take action. She’s now working on a video that will highlight five women’s lives on campus and how beauty standards have impacted them. She wants to make others realize that it is necessary to practice self-confidence.

“My goal of the project is to tell people to be happy with how they are right now. Don’t try to change yourself to impress others,” she said. “Everyone has the potential to do something greater and not have their appearance be the sole image of their lives.”

In the U.S., girls are starting to worry about their body image at increasingly younger ages. Some teenagers aged 13-17 first started feeling self-conscious and shameful about their bodies as young as 9 or 10 years old, according to a 2016 Yahoo Health study.

“This is international,” said Micol Hebron, a professor in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. “People believe that aesthetic trends and being cool and looking like everyone else is going to give them cultural agency. In fact, it creates divisiveness and insecurity, and it disempowers women, ultimately.”

Chapman was rated as No. 1 for the “hottest” girls two years in a row, according to Niche.com, a college ranking and review site. These rankings and the high number of attractive students can lead to feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, said junior business administration major Maria Donoso.

“I wish there was more diversity at Chapman just so people could see the beauty of all different shapes, sizes and colors,” Donoso said. “I know so many girls who are constantly under pressure to be thinner and prettier because they compare themselves to other girls at our school.”

Cherukuri’s inspiration for the video project also sprouted from her feelings of not fitting in with a variety of standards.

“As an Indian-American girl, I have struggled a lot with the battle between Indian and American beauty norms,” she said. “I’ve gotten so frustrated with it, and I realized that I just need to be happy with how I am right now.”

The disparity between standards for women and men contributes to a society that imposes oppressive attitudes and ideas about how those who have “louder” voices in society think other people should look and act, Hebron said.

“It costs more to be and look ‘female’ in this society,” she said. “It’s compounded because we make less and pay more. It also costs more in time. You have to ask why people are willing to spend time and money to perform a stereotype that oppresses them.”

Empowering women is a valuable start to tackling the fundamental issue of beauty norms, Hebron said.

“The most radical thing to do is to encourage women to not only support each other, but also to refuse to perpetuate the idea that looking any certain way is better than looking any other way,” she said.