It all started with a comment. I'd just hit my growth spurt and I had gained a noticeable amount of weight and height, and had the feeling of being hungry all the time. I fed myself well, ate what I wanted to, when I wanted to. I went to visit my friend's house and the door was opened by her mother. This lady happened to be an insensitive person, and tended to comment on others' body shapes. "Ah! You've grown fatter!" she squeezed my cheeks and beamed. Looking back I was aware that she did not mean it in a negative way and it was just a way of saying, "You've become more beautiful" or "You've grown!" But to a teenager just starting to change in both body and mind, I was especially sensitive to these words. That night I looked in the mirror and suddenly saw how my stomach was beginning to bulge in places I had never seen before, how my face was bloated, how my legs were thick with flubber.
That day was the first time I received a comment on my body shape. My mother was on a diet, so I knew that the society craved thinness and despised fatness. But I had never applied that on myself. I always saw dieting as a passing fad, something that happened to someone else, suffered by someone else. I saw stories of anorexics on TV and in magazines, and never even thought about the appeal of being that thin. But that comment stayed with me long after my bedtime that night, and that was the first time I thought that maybe I should go on a health diet.
Steph says:
Many people don't even understand what it is that they have said wrong. The society's perception of beauty is contorted, and I became one of the victims of this vicious spell. Don't comment on other's body shapes. Tell them how much more beautiful they are, how much smoother their skin looks, how much better they are doing at school or in their jobs. Life is not all about being thin.
That day was the first time I received a comment on my body shape. My mother was on a diet, so I knew that the society craved thinness and despised fatness. But I had never applied that on myself. I always saw dieting as a passing fad, something that happened to someone else, suffered by someone else. I saw stories of anorexics on TV and in magazines, and never even thought about the appeal of being that thin. But that comment stayed with me long after my bedtime that night, and that was the first time I thought that maybe I should go on a health diet.
Steph says:
Many people don't even understand what it is that they have said wrong. The society's perception of beauty is contorted, and I became one of the victims of this vicious spell. Don't comment on other's body shapes. Tell them how much more beautiful they are, how much smoother their skin looks, how much better they are doing at school or in their jobs. Life is not all about being thin.
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