Comments on: Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: A Weighty Issue

By: Maureen O'Leary Wanket

Maureen O'Leary Wanket — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:05:13 +0000

I wrote a Young Adult novel (not published yet) (looking for an agent) called How To Be Manly about a teenaged boy who loses weight over the course of a difficult summer when he joins the football team in order to pursue the girl of his dreams. As a high school teacher, I see how issues of weight and body image affect both males and females. These issues go beyond eating disorders and appearance for young people. The physical and emotional selves are so intertwined in young adults. It’s very interesting territory to explore in fiction.

By: writerjenn

writerjenn — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:56:10 +0000

Yes, Dawn, I think there is a new awareness of what “healthy” means, and I’m glad to see it being reflected in books.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:05:53 +0000

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.

By: writerjenn

writerjenn — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:14:11 +0000

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!

By: Leigh Brescia

Leigh Brescia — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:36:37 +0000

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?)

By: writerjenn

writerjenn — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:48:54 +0000

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!

By: writerjenn

writerjenn — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:47:40 +0000

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.

By: writerjenn

writerjenn — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:39:21 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions, Charlotte!

By: Beatriz

Beatriz — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:35:38 +0000

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”!

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:15:20 +0000

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.

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:14:10 +0000

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.

By: Erin Dionne

Erin Dionne — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:57:15 +0000

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!

By: writerjenn

writerjenn — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:55:29 +0000

Excellent points, Suzanne, and so well said! The weight issue makes us think about what health and happiness really mean.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:31:40 +0000

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.