I agree with Mercedes. Yet HealthNutt's point of view too. However, I just wanted to point one thing out. Have you attended a high school lately? Or even a middle school? Actually my little brother has a girlfriend now and he is in 5th grade! So even an elementary school! All the popular girls are skinny. And I'm not talking just thin, I am talking size 00, 0, and 2. I'm a size 4 and I was not skinny enough to be one of the "cool" kids. I graduated high school May 06. So I want to point out that peers definitely do NOT help show teens that being skinny isn't a necessity. I believe that movie stars like teen icons Lohan and Olsen do have an affect on how we think. I have idolized the Olsen twins since I grew up watching them on full house. And stars like Jessica Biel from Seventh Heaven. But all these actresses have one thing in common; they're skinny.
As far as parents go, personally, I still don't get along with my parents, do most teens? I'm in college now and with my overweight father and size 12 mother, I do not take their opinion of how I look very highly. My mother was a size 2 until she had me, and never bigger than a size 6 til she had my brother. Society teaches girls to be skinny. I would still kill to look like my mother did at my age or how Lohan looks now. It is something that is ingrained in girls today: you must be skinny to be attractive.
People pay attention to the media whether they should or shouldn't. And peers do nothing but intensify what the media says. Parents, that's a ball park I won't get into, but you understand my point. Whether its good or bad, people do pay attention to stars like Lohan and Olsen and try to mimic them. Actresses should have to maintain a certain weight, it would help themselves and in turn help society.