'Am I pretty or am I ugly?' In disturbing trend, pre-teens ask YouTube to be the judge
Pre-teen girls have long wondered if they're pretty. Now they're turning the question over to YouTube -- and opening themselves up to abuse.
The videos all follow the same basic formula: adolescent girls -- and some boys -- looking into the camera and asking, with awkward, feigned nonchalance, for commenters to tell them "the truth" about whether they're pretty or ugly. A YouTube search for “pretty or ugly” turns up pages of these kinds of videos.
The comments have been predictably horrible -- a mixture of cruel, perverted, and racist ramblings mixed with words of encouragement and pleas to take down the videos to avoid further harassment.
Experts say that the phenomenon is a natural expression of teenagers' desire for acceptance, translated into the Internet age. But they warn that having such a broad platform can pose dangers for teens -- both in terms of their mental health, and the danger of exposure to predators.
"This is a masochistic defense mechanism that teenagers are using to quell their anxiety," Psychiatrist Gale Saltz said in an interview with NBC’s ‘Today’ Show. "This is a self-destructive yet, unconsciously, coping mechanism. They're trying to feel better, but it's self destructive and it's not working."
Noticing the trend, some concerned YouTube users posted their own response videos. In one, posted by xpanpandax, a young woman says "You don't need anyone in the world to tell you if you're ugly or beautiful. The only thing that really matters is what you think."
Many of the posters mention bullying at school as their motivation for seeking out an “honest” answer about their looks, and say they don't believe it when parents and friends reassure them they're beautiful.
"A lot of people call me ugly, and I think I am ugly and fat," a young girl says in a video uploaded by sgal901, "but all my friends who are girls always say 'you're so beautiful'... and I'm like, 'shut up', because I'm not beautiful."
"I don't care if I'm ugly or not, I just want to know, cause I've been picked on a lot," says another, in a video uploaded by sidsizzle123.
"Your not ugly you just have pig lips," one commenter wrote on sidsizzle123's video.
"And you're black. So yes, you are ugly," wrote another.
"They have no safe place now," Dr. Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale, told ABC News. "As long as they're electronically connected, they become vulnerable."
Pre-teen girls have long wondered if they're pretty. Now they're turning the question over to YouTube -- and opening themselves up to abuse.
The videos all follow the same basic formula: adolescent girls -- and some boys -- looking into the camera and asking, with awkward, feigned nonchalance, for commenters to tell them "the truth" about whether they're pretty or ugly. A YouTube search for “pretty or ugly” turns up pages of these kinds of videos.
The comments have been predictably horrible -- a mixture of cruel, perverted, and racist ramblings mixed with words of encouragement and pleas to take down the videos to avoid further harassment.
Experts say that the phenomenon is a natural expression of teenagers' desire for acceptance, translated into the Internet age. But they warn that having such a broad platform can pose dangers for teens -- both in terms of their mental health, and the danger of exposure to predators.
"This is a masochistic defense mechanism that teenagers are using to quell their anxiety," Psychiatrist Gale Saltz said in an interview with NBC’s ‘Today’ Show. "This is a self-destructive yet, unconsciously, coping mechanism. They're trying to feel better, but it's self destructive and it's not working."
Noticing the trend, some concerned YouTube users posted their own response videos. In one, posted by xpanpandax, a young woman says "You don't need anyone in the world to tell you if you're ugly or beautiful. The only thing that really matters is what you think."
Many of the posters mention bullying at school as their motivation for seeking out an “honest” answer about their looks, and say they don't believe it when parents and friends reassure them they're beautiful.
"A lot of people call me ugly, and I think I am ugly and fat," a young girl says in a video uploaded by sgal901, "but all my friends who are girls always say 'you're so beautiful'... and I'm like, 'shut up', because I'm not beautiful."
"I don't care if I'm ugly or not, I just want to know, cause I've been picked on a lot," says another, in a video uploaded by sidsizzle123.
"Your not ugly you just have pig lips," one commenter wrote on sidsizzle123's video.
"And you're black. So yes, you are ugly," wrote another.
"They have no safe place now," Dr. Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale, told ABC News. "As long as they're electronically connected, they become vulnerable."
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It's no wonder why teenagers committing suicide is on the rise.
