There’s a classic story line many of us have in our heads: girl is overweight and unhappy; girl loses weight. She finds health, happiness, self-determination, and often a boyfriend too.
I don’t know exactly where that story line came from, but it has a few problems. Do we really believe it’s how we look and how much we weigh that determines whether we can be happy? And what about eating disorders?
On the other hand, obesity is associated with very real health problems; don’t we have an obligation to acknowledge that?
You can see the difficult path a writer navigates here, in telling any story about girls and weight issues.
Out now, or coming soon, are several books about girls dealing with weight issues. (See the list below.) In some cases, the girls are objectively overweight; in others, they only believe they are. None of the books treat weight loss as easy, or as the sole path to true happiness. In fact, sometimes weight loss is the symptom of a much more serious problem.
There don’t seem to be nearly as many books about boys struggling with weight issues–Robert Lipsyte’s ONE FAT SUMMER and K. L. Going’s FAT KID RULES THE WORLD excepted. Is that because boys struggle less with weight issues, or worry less about them? Or does society just not acknowledge that struggle? Is this an unmet need, a gap in our bookshelves?
Book List: Girls and Weight Issues
SWEETHEARTS, Sara Zarr
THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS, Carolyn Mackler
ARTICHOKE’S HEART, Suzanne Supplee
MODELS DON’T EAT CHOCOLATE COOKIES, Erin Dionne
JANE IN BLOOM, Deborah Lytton
WINTERGIRLS, Laurie Halse Anderson
ONE WISH, Leigh Brescia
SECRETS OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY, Megan Frazer
And for a couple of books about the complicated mother-daughter relationship when it comes to diet and weight issues: SHRINKING VIOLET, Danielle Joseph and MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS, Sydney Salter
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Comments
1 Suzanne // Apr 10, 2009 at 10:31 am
It’s always seemed to me like the correlation between weight loss and happiness stems from the idea that the decision to lose weight has something to do with a desire to better herself. A lot of times, that is, in fact, the reason. Sometimes, it’s really not.
Jennifer Weiner’s GOOD IN BED did a good job of addressing how individual the struggle is. Her protagonist only loses lots of weight when she becomes horribly depressed and treats herself terribly.
In any case, I think the focus of a good “girl loses weight, finds self, lives HEA” story is on the individual and her journey. Trying to write a book that serves as a model for all young women in regards to their weight, their relationships, their goals… no one heroine can serve as a model for all young women. As long as the author makes it clear that her heroine found happiness on her own terms, it shouldn’t matter what those terms are.
As far as young men… I know/knew plenty who were just as concerned with their weight as their female peers. There’s some stigma around men acknowledging the issue, however. The men I know don’t like to talk about their weight in any serious way, never mind think about reading a novel addressing the issue. Or *gasp* writing one. I expect that men will step up to the challenge soon, though.
2 writerjenn // Apr 10, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Excellent points, Suzanne, and so well said! The weight issue makes us think about what health and happiness really mean.
3 Erin Dionne // Apr 10, 2009 at 3:57 pm
When writing MODELS, I tried very hard to stay away from the HEA ending. Celeste makes changes on her own terms, and when the book was on subs it was a big priority for me to keep it that way. I am so glad my editor “got” that about the book!
4 Charlotte // Apr 10, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I just finished reading Slob, by Ellen Potter, about a boy who becomes overweight when he turns to binge eating to assuage his grief.
And there’s Nothing, by Robin Freidman, about a teen aged boy whose bulimic.
My favorite book of the past year about an overweight girl is Everything Beautiful, by Simmone Howell. At the end of the book, she is a lot happy, has hooked up with a boy, and her weight had nothing to do with either of those two things.
5 Charlotte // Apr 10, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I just finished reading Slob, by Ellen Potter, about a boy who becomes overweight when he turns to binge eating to assuage his grief.
And there’s Nothing, by Robin Freidman, about a teen aged boy who’s bulimic.
My favorite book of the past year about an overweight girl is Everything Beautiful, by Simmone Howell. At the end of the book, she is a lot happy, has hooked up with a boy, and her weight had nothing to do with either of those two things.
6 Beatriz // Apr 10, 2009 at 8:35 pm
My mother reminded me that I’ve always been weight conscious…since the age four…yup…4 years old. I’m not sure why, for I was never overweight as a child.
I only started to struggle with actual weight, when I go married. So “weight and happiness” have always been a part of my life story. The heaviness of my body weighing heavily on my perceptions of happiness.
By average standards, I would probably be mildly overweight in appearance and moderately overweight in actual poundage. But in my head and by fashion standards, I’m grossly overweight. How can women accept their normal body weight, when models/actresses are moderately underweight?
It’s certainly no easy task to write about these issues. It’s much more complicated than a number on the scale. It has become the standard by which women rate themselves. It’s the standard set by the fashion industry. It’s the social standard of beauty in America.
So kudos to all who try to tackle this “weight monster”!
7 writerjenn // Apr 11, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Thanks for the suggestions, Charlotte!
8 writerjenn // Apr 11, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Thanks for commenting, Beatriz! Another interesting facet for girls and women is that complaining about weight and talking about diets is often part of socializing and female bonding. That can serve as peer pressure sometimes, for better or for worse.
As for the women we see in the media–it makes me sick when I hear sports announcers saying that female athletes who look perfectly fine need to lose weight.
9 writerjenn // Apr 11, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Yes, Erin, I definitely saw that Celeste had to fight everyone else’s expectations of how she should look, and find out what she really wanted for herself!
10 Leigh Brescia // Apr 11, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Thanks for the mention! As much as I love the “happily ever after” ending, it’s not always reality. One of the things I kept in mind when writing One Wish was how our personal decisions can affect others. What Wrenn doesn’t realize is that as she’s working towards her goal of weight loss and popularity she’s hurting her friends/family and herself. In many ways, there’s a “be careful what you wish for” theme, because you just might get it. (But at what cost?)
11 writerjenn // Apr 11, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Right, Leigh: it’s not really self-improvement if you’re hurting yourself and others in the process.
I liked the complexity of Wrenn’s story. It didn’t go where I expected, but it went where it needed to go, if that makes sense!
12 Dawn // Apr 12, 2009 at 11:05 am
When I heard Carolyn Mackler speak at SCBWI in New York, she said that she was conscious of not writing this ending where her MC had to lose weight in order to be happy/find herself/get the guy. I appreciated that.
As a professional in adolescent self-esteem, I have a lot of opinions about body image and its meaning-making (for both girls AND boys) and my #1 piece of advice is this: go for feeling healthy, not a number. Throw out the scale.
13 writerjenn // Apr 12, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Yes, Dawn, I think there is a new awareness of what “healthy” means, and I’m glad to see it being reflected in books.
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