The influence that media have on forming of self-perception and perception of physical appearance is large. Media do not just enable the transmission of cultural ideals of physical beauty, but they form them as well. In the times of hyperconsumerism and spectacle culture, ideals of physical beauty are wide spread among media content, often being distorted, causing the alteration of public behavior, especially among it's weakest segment – among children and adolescents. Such relationship often results in unwanted consequences such as eating disorders that emerge as a result of discrepancy between expectations and reality. Media literacy and media education can cause critical thinking to emerge and are often seen as the best answer to these problems. In this thesis, a research among 162 middle school first graders was made. The results have shown that Croatian adolescents acknowledge the influence of media on their self-perception. The results have also shown that the media which the adolescents are exposed to are perpetuating the ideals of thinness among women and muscularity among men. The test group also acknowledge these ideals, stating that those ideals represent the ideals they want to achieve in their own life. That kind of behavior does not mean that it will most certainly result in behavioral problems, but those problems pose a real possibility, further reinforcing the idea that there is a necessity for greater responsibility among the media and journalists and for implementing the media literacy program in education curriculums.