19
What Issues Do Teens Have with Their Bodies?
“
“
[Being compared to a fat girl] shook my world—not
for days, not for months, forever.
”
—Ronna Benjamin, who writes about teenage issues with weight and body image on the website Better After 50.
I’ve gone through stages where I hate my body so much
that I won’t even wear shorts and a bra in my house
because if I pass a mirror, that’s the end of my day.
”
—Fiona Apple, an American singer-songwriter who suffered from an eating disorder after being raped at age twelve.
B
ody image first became an issue for Alyssa in the seventh grade.
During an experiment in science class, she found out that she
weighed as much as one of the boys. “I took that like, I should
weigh less; otherwise I won’t be seen as pretty,” she said. Even though
she was the smallest girl in her class, she went on a diet, losing so much
weight that her family became concerned. “For a few months I was in
denial and didn’t want to admit that [losing so much weight] was un-
healthy, because I liked being tiny,” she explains. “But to my family, my
personality was changing because I was so worried about it.”
14
Like Alyssa, many teens first became concerned with how they look
in middle school, when the onset of puberty begins to change teens’
bodies. These changes start at different times and progress at different
What Issues Do
Teens Have with
Their Bodies?
