Self Esteem And Self Image

Building Adolescent Self Esteem is so closely related to building a positive self image as to make the two inseparable. Your teen can only do what s/he sees himself capable of doing because of who s/he thinks s/he is in the world. If your child has an image of being attractive then your child is attractive. If your teen defines himself or herself as athletic then s/he is athletic. If someone tells your adolescent s/he is a talented writer and your child does not see himself or herself as a talented writer then all your child can do with such a comment is think something like, "Yeah, right. What other lies are you going to tell me." OR "IF you only knew the truth about me you wouldn't think so."
The task for you, the parent, then becomes one of valuing your child for who s/he is regardless of who s/he thinks himself or herself to be. Love your chilld no matter what. Support your child no matter what. In other words practice unconditional love. I am not saying support unhealthy behaviors. I am suggesting you look for all that is wonderful in your child. I guarantee you will see exactly what you look for. And then reinforce all the greatness you see. Do that over and over. It will become your habit and it will raise your teen's self esteem by altering his or her self image.
Self image is like a self sulfilling prophecy. You get what you expect and only what you expect. So what do you expect from your adolescent?