时尚“网红”治愈青少年心理问题？

There are many reasons why social media is best avoided during the summer. All those shots of people holidaying in sunny locations can be hard to take when you’re stuck in a rain-swept city. But while scrolling through feeds of friends having a #dreamholiday might be accompanied by mild feelings of envy for the post-millennials among us, for adolescents coming of age in this era of digital saturation, the repercussions can be more damaging. As more people communicate via sites such as Instagram and Snapchat, with their emphasis on physical appearance and the shared intimacies of friendship groups, the spectre of exclusion is magnified, and it gets especially bad during the holidays, when students are likely to be estranged from their peers yet still watching their activities from the sidelines.

度假的时候不用社交媒体的原因简直太多了。当自己被困在瓢泼大雨的城市无法脱身时，想拍阳光明媚度假地的照片肯定是无能为力的。那些浏览主题是#dreamholiday#(梦幻之旅)的朋友圈，可能会让我们对00后孩子以及生活在这个网络无处不在时代的年轻人有点妒忌，但网络的后续影响更为负面。越来越多的人借助Instagram与Snapchat等社交平台沟通往来，并且他们把重点放在外在形象以及朋友圈里相互的亲密关系上，但这样一来，彼此间的隔阂就被人为放大，而度假时尤为突出。这时候，学生很可能与同龄人疏远，但仍在一旁冷眼旁观同学们的一举一动。

“Over the last few years, children have been spending an average of six-and-a-half hours in front of a screen per day,” announced the Connected Kids survey undertaken by specialist research group Childwise, in 2015. The group no longer monitors cumulative screen times, as children are more likely to use multiple screens at once, but recent figures found that children spend an average of 2.9 hours on their mobile phones. A report published this year by The Royal Society for Public Health found that spending more than two hours a day on social networking sites increased the possibility of poor mental health and psychological distress among young people.

“过去几年，孩子们每天花在电脑上的时间是6个半小时。”由专业研究机构Childwise承担的研究课题Connected Kids 2015年发布的报告声称道。该机构不再监控累计使用电脑时间，因为孩子们如今更可能同时使用多台电脑，但最新数据发现孩子们每天平均花2.9小时玩手机。皇家公共卫生学会(The Royal Society for Public Health)今年发布的报告称：每天花在社交网站上超过2个小时就会导致孩子出现严重心理问题以及增加其心理压力。

Conclusive evidence that our increased exposure to social media is a contributing factor to mental health issues is yet to appear. But our youths are becoming more miserable. The number of 16- to 24-year-olds experiencing mental health problems is increasing: a 2016 report by NHS Digital found that self-harm rates doubled among men, and trebled among women, in this age group, between 2007 and 2014. When your worth is measured by “likes”, is it any wonder?

持续使用社交媒体是影响心理健康的一大因素目前仍无确凿证据。但我们的孩子们已越发郁闷苦恼。16-24岁有心理问题的年轻人数量在不断攀升：英国国民健康体系(NHS Digital)2016年发布的报告称：2007-2014年间，此年龄段的男性自残比率增加了一倍，女性自残比率则大幅增加了三倍。如果大家的价值都由“喜欢的东西”来衡量的话，这个社会还有什么希望呢?

Mental illness is of course caused by many factors, and the beauty and fashion world has a lot to answer for when it comes to the question of self-image. But as millennials drift away from traditional media formats and marketing strategies, it’s a strange irony to find that, today, some of the most dynamic voices for teenage empowerment are coming from within the industry itself.

心理疾病当然是由诸多因素造成的，说起自我形象问题，时尚与美容业可以说难辞其咎。但随着2000年后一代人与传统媒体与营销策略渐行渐远，如今最为怪异的讽刺是：代表青少年阶层的最活跃的代言人却是时尚美容界人士。

Change is afoot. The west London model Adwoa Aboah might have a US Vogue cover under her belt, which should in theory make her unreachable to most teens, but she has lately become a poster-girl for young women with mental health issues. She shared her own experiences of drugs and depression in a filmed interview with her mother, the artists’ agent Camilla Lowther, for the mental health charity Heads Together in March. Since then she has founded the charity Gurls Talk, a small but influential platform that encourages young women to talk about their concerns.

这种变化正在“上演”。来自伦敦西区的模特Adwoa Aboah可能会成为美国版《Vogue》封面女郎，从理论上说，她是大多数青少年可望而不可及的人物，但她最近成为有心理问题女孩的榜样与典范(poster-girl)。今年三月，在为心理健康慈善机构Heads Together制作的视频访谈中，她与母亲、艺术经纪人卡米拉•劳瑟(Camilla Lowther)分享了自己服用毒品与自我厌弃的往事。在这之后，她成立了慈善论坛Gurls Talk，这个规模小但影响力大的网上平台鼓励女孩子说出自己的心理困惑。

Much of her communication has been driven by social media, and her candour is irresistible: about 700 young women came to hear her speak at a Gurls Talk festival last month, sponsored by the US fashion brand Coach. With contributions by intersex model Hanne Gaby Odiele, as well as workshops on self-care and healing, Aboah’s message is hoping to steer the conversation away from lonely aspiration, to activism and inclusivism. Is there any money in it? The pay-off for Coach could be measured by the length of the queue at the customisation bar.

Adwoa Aboah与粉丝沟通交流，主要推动力就是社交媒体，她的坦诚让其成为人气女王：不久前，近700位女孩子亲临美国时尚品牌Coach友情赞助的Gurls Talk对话节，聆听其精彩演讲。在双性模特汉娜•盖比•奥迪尔(Hanne Gaby Odiele)以及自我保健与救治工作室的鼎力相助下，Aboah传递的信息是希望能把这种对话从孤芳自赏转向积极投身各种活动以及彼此包容。那么这么做有经济效益吗?Coach的收效就是定制店门口排起的粉丝长龙。

A recent London pop-up shop by Emily Weiss, founder of New York-based Glossier, saw 1,400 girls and young women queueing round the block for a chance to meet her. Her fan base is built on the way the brand consults them on what products they’d like to see; a conversation rather than a monologue.

1400位女孩子们在纽约时尚品牌Glossier创始人艾米丽•韦斯(Emily Weiss)新开的伦敦快闪店(pop-up store)门口排起了长龙，为的是与其见一面。其粉丝不断增多的原因是：她的品牌会垂询粉丝对产品的具体要求;这就成了双方的对话而不是唱独角戏。

The 30-year-old editor of the US-based magazine Teen Vogue, Elaine Welteroth, has also been quick to tackle some of the stigma surrounding depression. With 2.1m Instagram followers, the magazine is determined to amplify the voices of all its readers — whatever their gender identity, sexuality, socio-economic status, disability or faith — to create an empowered, enlightened and well-informed community. And she’s getting a positive response.

30岁的美国时尚杂志《Teen Vogue》主编伊莱恩•韦尔特罗特(Elaine Welteroth)同样在处理抑郁引发的耻辱感方面行动迅速。拥有210万粉丝的《Teen Vogue》下定决心“强化”所有读者(不管其性别、性取向、社会经济地位、残疾程度以及何种信仰)的心声，于是创建了一个更自主、更知性以及更博识的网群。她的呼吁得到了粉丝团的积极响应。

Vera Papisova, the magazine’s digital wellness editor, says: “Our mental health coverage, particularly articles around anxiety and depression, are some of the most-read articles on our website.” Not that their target audiences are all women, she adds: “It’s also important not to exclude men from this conversation: in 2015, seven out of 10 suicides in the US were white men.”

《Teen Vogue》杂志数字健康编辑Vera Papisova说：“我们的心理健康版面，尤其是焦虑与抑郁方面的文章最受粉丝喜欢。”并非所有目标对象都是女性，她又补充道：“不把男性排斥在对话之外同样至关重要：要知道，美国2015年十分之七的自杀者是白人男性。”

Many in the beauty and fashion industry are waking up to the fact they need to work differently if they want to engage with this next generation of consumers. A glance around the table at a discussion I attended recently by the pioneering children’s charity Place2Be on the subject of appearance and mental health among young people revealed that alongside the headteachers and psychologists one might expect were cosmetic surgeons, a famous make-up artist and an Estée Lauder executive.

很多美容业从业者如今逐渐意识到：如果想吸引新一代的消费者，都得改变工作策略。近日，笔者参加了一场由首倡关注儿童健康的慈善团体Place2Be组织的讨论会(主题是年轻人的外在形象与心理健康)，我随意扫视了一眼参与者，发现除了意料中的中小学校长与心理学家外，在座的竟然还有一位知名美容专家与一位雅诗兰黛(Estée Lauder)高管。

Meaningful engagement is still a work in progress. Could social media be harnessed as a force for our greater good? “Being a young person on the internet today can be very difficult, even traumatising at times,” says Papisova. “But social media can also provide a community for people who feel isolated in their hometowns or even in their households. If you look at Instagram and Tumblr, there are lots of people connecting every day using hashtags to lift each other up in a way that wouldn’t be accessible without social media. It might sound trivial, but it can change someone’s life to realise they’re not alone.”

时尚明星与粉丝之间有意义的接触仍是任重而道远。那么能否利用社交媒体这股力量发挥更大作用呢?“如今的网络青年不易相处，有时甚至会有精神伤害举动。”Papisova说，“但是社交媒体还可以为那些在家乡、甚至在自家感到孤立无援的人提供一个精神家园。浏览Instagram与博客网站Tumblr，可以看到很多网民每天使用朋友圈相互鼓励，而没有社交媒体彼此之间就难以沟通交流。此事或许微不足道，但能改变一个人的生活，让其意识到自己并非孤家寡人。”