“Don’t tell Mom and Dad it’s me, okay?” She Waits. “Okay?” she says, a little louder. “Okay,” I tell my sister. “How are you? How’s college?” I’m surprised she’s calling up here, and glad for the distraction. Billy Weinstein seems to be the only one who’s noticed how her sister, Cassie, has changed since she left for college. She can tell how she seems withdrawn, obsessed with studying, and how she barely eats. Although Billie wants to talk to her parents about it, every time she brings it up, they just act as though its a phase and that she’ll grow out of it. Her father continuously says “She’s under a lot of stress now, that’s all. Freshman year is very hard at Cornell. She’ll get her appetite back after exams.”
As the story deepens, Billie continues to try and show her parents how Cassie’s actions aren’t healthy. She’s even tried convincing Cassie to ask for help or to at least realize she has a problem. “No Billy, really, I’m fine. I had some breakfast before, I’m really not hungry. I’ll eat later, okay, I promise,” Cassie tells me. What makes it even worse though, is that Billie’s father is a doctor and should be able to tell that Cassie has a eating problem. As time goes on , Billie realizes that Cassie is getting deeper into problems. She sleeps all the time, and has stopped eating altogether.
Finally, when Cassie’s dorm director at college calls and tells her parents that she has been getting reports from girls worrying about Cassie, Billie’s parents finally take action. As soon as they bring Cassie to the doctor, they put her in an eating disorder clinic. They all know that it will be a while before Cassie gets better since Cassie still hasn’t realized she has a problem. When Billie tells her that she should gain more wait, all she can say is : “It’s not good, it’s gross. I can’t stand it, really, but it’s the only way out of this place. Not that it’s so bad. I mean, in a way, it’s easier. Just a few simple rules. If you gain, you’re good, if you lose, you’re bad.
In Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone, we are told the story of Chinese-American family that immigrated to the United States. The story deals with the loss of family, grief and the American Dream while also addressing the narrator’s ethnic background. But the one detail that really sticks out in the book is that it goes backwards in time, starting from when Leila is numb to the death of her sister to the moments after and before it happens. While this choice did stray from the normal conventions of stories, it was necessary in order to captivate the reader’s attention.
“The Lovely Bones” is a book written by Alice Sebold. It was published in 2002, and it’s about Susie Salmon, a girl that was murdered and no watches her family and murderer from her own heaven. She tries to balance her feeling and watch out for her family since her murderer is still free and with nobody knowing how dangerous he is. In 2009, a movie adapted from the book came out as well.
we are told that this story is about a girl or a woman and perhaps her
Described within the vignette is a nineteen year old teenager named Brandy. Similar to girls her age, Brandy has difficulties dealing with her body image and self-esteem. For instance, she experiences hopelessness, isolation, sadness, and anxiety that all contribute to Brandy’s acknowledgement of her physical appearance. She completely overestimates her body size to the point of taking dieting pills then defaulting to purging. During the typical day, the meals are scarce but healthy compared to a bad day full of unhealthy snacking. Lastly, her family predicament is not a supportive one at that. Her mother was obese so she constantly dieted while Brandy’s father illustrated signs of sexual interest although he never physically touched her.
Sara is a thirty three year old lesbian black female. She reports that she was 5’9” in eighth grade and has always been larger than everyone. She also reports that her grandmother was present in her life and would control her diet with slim fast starting around eighth grade, and her brother lived with her as well. Sara has stated that growing up, she did not feel safe, and that there has been trauma causing her life struggles. Her close friend, Julie, reports that she is aware of Sara’s condition but only because she has brought it up when something apparent relates, but declines to discuss in any further detail. Julie states that it is hard to believe Sara is struggling with such a condition and for so long because
Wintergirls is a book related to eating disorders. The author’s purpose of writing this book is to inform readers what a person with an eating disorder. It depicts the inner and outer conflicts that characters like Lia and Cassie face with disorder. It all began with a competition between two characters of who can be the skinniest. Cassie dies in the attempt of winning the game. Lia, the main character in this novel, always keeps track of her food consumption. For example, one breakfast morning, Lia said she didn’t want “a muffin (410),…orange (75),…toast (87),…waffles (180)” (Anderson 5). Lia constantly keeps track of the calories she eats. Unlike Cassie who follows the path of bulimia, Lia inhibits herself from eating, therefore not getting the proper nutrients. This allows the readers to know how a person with a disorder like Lia can restrain herself from eating foods that we’re used to eating in our regular lives. Her ultimate goal frequently change, getting lower and lower each time. Lia strives for a “five hundred calories a day” (Anderson 189). Her constant change of goals allows the readers to know the struggles a girl with such a mindset may feel.
In Paul Toughmay’s “Who Gets to Graduate,” he follows a young first year college student, Vanessa Brewer, explaining her doubts, fears, and emotions while starting her college journey. As a student, at the University of Texas Brewer feels small and as if she doesn’t belong. Seeking advice from her family she calls her mom but after their conversation Brewer feels even more discouraged. Similar to Brewer I have had extreme emotions, doubts, and fears my freshman year in college.
Miss Desjardin, still incensed over the locker room incident and ashamed at her initial disgust with Carrie, wants all the girls who made fun of Carrie suspended and banned from attending the school prom, but the principal instead punishes the girls by giving them several detentions. When Chris, after an altercation with Miss Desjardin, refuses to appear for the detention, she is suspended and barred from the prom and tries to get her fat...
Mental illness is a stigma around teenagers and needs more representation. In The First Time She Drowned, Kerry Kletter shines a light on the ups and downs of mental illnesses. Cassie O’Malley was wrongly committed to a mental institution. She is now set free and can restart her life. During this journey, she faces difficulties with her mental health and her poor mother-daughter relationship. Cassie must decide to dive into her past in order for her to move forward. This is an exceptional book because it captures the reality of mental illnesses, the character development of Cassie and teaches the readers a life lesson.
It would seem that Hannah didn’t have a chance at a normal life from the moment she was born. At the age of nine months old, she was kidnapped in Belgium by her housekeeper’s prostitute daughter. Aside from being a terrifying ordeal, research has shown that that negative experiences, such as rape and other forms of abuse (or in this case kidnapping), influence eating pathology (Mesman-Moore & Garrigus, 2007). Furthermore, Johnson et al. (2002) found that individuals with eating disorders were more likely than those without to report a history of child maltreatment, other childhood adversities, and poor parental relat...
In “The Fat Girl” Louise struggled with her weight for all her life even after she became slender. Even when she was a girl her mother
“It is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder - seven million women, and one million men.” (“South Carolina Department of Mental Health”). Skinny by Ibi Kaslik is about two sisters, Holly and Giselle, whose lives and relationship are impacted by the others’ state of condition. Giselle is a medical student who wanted to see what would happen if she stopped eating, and because of this she developed anorexia. Holly is an eighth grader who was born deaf in her left ear. The story jumps back and forth, changing every chapter, from Giselle’s point of view to Holly’s. This helps show the reader how one sister affects the others life. Skinny by Ibi Kaslik shows how family problems can have a great effect on the lives of the people within the family.
Marya Hornbacher was born on April 4th, 1974, her parents were well-known actors and directors in Walnut Creek, California. She led a chaotic childhood, consisting of a major move to Minnesota, an anxiety disorder, and most of all, perfectionism everywhere she turned, “I always felt there was an expectation that I would do one of two things: be great at something, or go crazy and become a total failure. There is no middle ground where I come from,” (Hornbacher, 281). Marya developed bulimia when she was nine years old, and when she moved away to attending boarding school at fifteen, she became anorexic. Her parents saw it as a phase and Marya did not go into treatment for another seven years, since then, she has had several relapses. Marya wrote her ...
Like the girl in the book Next to Nothing, the person she showed her family and friends was happy, smart, valedictorian of her high school, top of her class in college, and she just seemed to have her life all together. Except no one saw the girl that would eat the amount of calories she thought was right or the endless times she wore out shoes on the treadmill. She would starve for days than give in and binge eat. She had that perfectionist mentality. She admits to being miserable. She almost died from her eating disorder. “They wind up consuming you whole. They will kill you, if you let them” (Arnold 2). Over a period of seven years, she attended therapy, hospitalizations, residential treatment, and physical and emotional heartache. She claims to not be cured because her ED (eating disorder) points out when she is not as this as she wants. She talks about how no one told her the dangers but instead she got compliments of how good she looked which made her think she was doing the right thing. She makes a comment about the social pressure for thinness. “I was never thin enough to appease my eating disorder” (Arnold