There Once Was a Girl
On the false narratives of anorexia.
Anorexia
Some Girls Want Out
On spectacular saintliness, holy anorexia, and female hysteria.
How Much You Want It
While worrying about her obese father, a teenager develops an eating disorder.
"Selma’s parents aren’t dieting. Whenever I see Dr. Garza, he’s in green scrubs, fresh from delivering a new batch of babies. I can’t tell how thin he is, but I know for certain that he isn’t fat, and I doubt Mrs. Garza is repulsed by him. I’m convinced that Papa is the only obese parent at my school and I hate him for eating thirds at buffets and for serving himself a heaping bowl of butter pecan ice cream most nights. Around January I convince my mother that my breakfast, usually biscuits and hot chocolate, is lacking in nutrition. What I need is a breakfast shake packed with vitamins. Each morning I mix protein powder with skim milk and drink my shake. This is all I ingest for breakfast: one hundred and ten calories and half a gram of fat."
A Thin Line Between Mother and Daughter
On the family origins of an eating disorder.
