Student Presenter(s): Ariana Hernandez, Yana Kostova, and Briana Alcindor
Faculty Mentor: Melissa Huey
School/College: Arts and Sciences, Manhattan

The eurocentric beauty standard has been a prominent factor in many lives of women of color. Media representation affects young women of color’s self-concept and encourages social comparison. Findings indicate that media representations that promote “sexual racism”, stereotypes, and beauty standards cause a decrease in self-esteem, sexual repercussions, and internalized racism in students of color (Silvestrini, M. 20201). Our research will measure the participants’ self-esteem and conclude how eurocentric beauty standards affect their perception of themselves and others. We hypothesize that high favorability of eurocentric beauty standards represented in the media affects women of color’s self-esteem and perception of beauty.

Data will be collected from female NYIT students of all races and ethnic backgrounds and graduating years. This study will be conducted by introducing a repeated measures design test where we will look for a score change after doing a week-long intervention. The survey will measure four variables, (1) Favorability of eurocentric beauty, (2) self-esteem, (3) physical changes women have done in order to fit their understanding of beauty, and (4) attitudes toward media representation susceptibility. After the initial survey completion, participants will receive a newsletter, daily for 5 consecutive days, highlighting women of different ethnicities. After this study is conducted, we will observe the changes over time in favorability of eurocentric beauty.