"Pretty, Hungry" by Ellen Hopkins is about a girl named Lorelei Jeanne who had a troubled home life and therefore got taken care of by her grandmother, who fed her all the time. She felt like she was a "goodyear" blimp by the time she started kindergarten. (148). Her dad was in the service and would come home from time to time and would always look at Lorelei with disgust. Her father would yell at her drunken mother about how she is not working hard enough to keep their daughter healthy. Lorelei wanted her father to love her so she started not eating desserts, and then started not finishing her dinners, and the reader can obviously see where this is going. Her parents eventually got divorced becasue her mother was a drunk and he could not stand to be around her when he was home. All of the girls at school had changed from calling her an "elephant" to calling her a "ho". At the end of the story her dad is proud of her and so she learns that being hungry means being pretty. This is the saddest thing for a young woman to think because it morphs her idea of body image for the rest of her life. A father is someone who every girl wants to impress. I liked this story because it was told in a poetic form, with choppy language and different parts of the story separated for emphasis.
"How to Tame a Wild Booty" by Coe Booth is about a girl named Stacie whose butt had hit puberty years ahead the rest of her body had. Stacie was standing outside her housing building and a middle aged man looked at her shorts (cut-offs) and said that she was "growing up real nice," (176). After this happened, Stacie's father yelled at her to never wear shorts again and so for a few years, that is exactly what happened. Stacie always felt like she needed to cover up her body and her mom even made her buy a few girdles. After a few years of covering up her body, Stacie was desparate to finda new solution. She started losing weight so that she would become more proportional. The problem was, though, that she lost the weight everywhere except her butt, and now her butt was exentuated three times more. At the end of her whole experience, when she was goign into college she went in with the mindset of "flaunting what you have." I really admire hearing about Stacie's experiences because they give a positive outlook about yes, not everyone loves their bodies but if they absolutely cannot change and they are not detrimental to your health (like a bigger bottom) then it is fine to just accept your features and flaunt it.
"Confessions of a Former It Girl" by Wendy Shanker is a really interesting short story about memories of a woman who tried to act just like a celebrity. This means drinking starbucks drinks anywhere you go, and looking pretty with your beautiful counterpart when out on a date. The author said, "It was like there was someone you could know or something you could buy that would make you BETTER. that would FIX you." (190). This really embodies what people think about celebrities. This lady went crazy just to become a "celebrity" or to be noticed. Se did things like lie about her age, bought a Chihuahua and named it Pinky, got a tattoo, rented a house in the Hamptons, kissed her brother, and much much more. Her family eventually did an intervention on her and she started moving back to normal folk behavior. She liked it too, which was the most important part. This for me was a lot about the GIGS- aka Grass Is Greener Syndrome. Yes, celebrities look like their lives are all fun and games, but it really is a lot of work and not worth it because actions escalate very quickly under the medias eyes.
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