Self Loating, Is it as realistic as those who portray perfectionism? Let's ponder!

I have fallen into the 30-something category quicker than I expected (even though I lived my life with fake IDs until I was 21).  I mean you would think that I was pushing myself towards this!
I have two daughters and was thinking the other day how when I was their age I had to worry about models #1 and airbrushing #2.  Of course every talk show, beauty documentary and a lot of newspapers thought they were the first to bring this to light.  Well, the point is that there was an awareness.
I spent 8 years of my life not eating.  Why?  Because I wanted to be that perfect airbrushed image (now I realize it isn't all real) that was staring at me everywhere I went.  I was an avid reader of my mum's Cosmopolitans and Harper's Bazaar, as well as my own Seventeen magazines.  Oddly enough in the women's magazines the models were children, closer to my age than my mum.  And my magazine had Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, etc aka adults.  Thinking on this more I realize that it is an absolute farce that young girls would model in magazines geared towards women and women in magazines geared towards young girls.  That makes no sense at all.  However it easily opens your eyes to the reasons that every one's own image is so distorted.  How can an adult woman look  like a 14 year old boy and how can a 14 year old girl look like a 30+ WOMAN?  NOT POSSIBLE, yet the perfect way to sell clothes.  "The younger girls are doing this, so I will too", says the older woman.  "The older women are doing this, so I will too", says the young teenager. 
Back to the fact that I have two daughters.  These poor children are inundated by perfection.  Not only do they have to worry about models #1, they have celebrities #2, airbrushing #3 and the ever fabulous GLAM SQUADS #4 that were as she purr at that certain perfect images every move.  There is no way to be unattractive, have a bad hair day, wear the wrong outfit when not only is there one other person helping dress you, but there is one who is putting your shoes on you, one refreshing your makeup, one fluffing your hair and I will never forget this one......One to keep J.Lo's nipples hard in one of her videos (isn't that called a fluffer?  def not the type of career you would like to explain to your young child). 
Thanks to those awful 8 years I know what to look for, I know the cues and the hidden ways to get around eating.  I am deeply saddened by the fact that my children are living in a culture deemed so self conceded. 
Also, thanks to those awful 8 years I have and continuing to have to regain the  metabolism I messed up beyond repair. 
Have I found happiness with my outer appearance?  Of course not.  However I am one hell of a great person inside.  It isn't what young girls want to hear, but it is a healing moment for a recovering self loather.