This is definitely not what I planned to write about today but thats plans for you! Media moves me and today the early morning paper (yea, I still read them print things once in a while) has done just that. Its moved me out of my Sunday laze-fest mode on to the computer.
I usually read all ‘dimwit’ pages with my first cup of coffee and so I was reading the ‘Agony Aunt’ section of a respected local newspaper. Here a little girl has written in, fretting about her weight. She said, ” I am 12 years old. My weight is 57kg and I am 5’5. My ideal weight should not be more than 42 kgs.” She goes on to explain how she exercises but finds it tough to keep up the routine and how she tries to control her appetite but( according to her own high though distorted standards I suspect) fails.
Won't you please tell her she's beautiful!
Its not a shocker that a 12-year-old is worried about being fat but what is utterly shocking is the newspaper’s so-called expert’s reply to this mail. Instead of telling this girl that she is just fine and explaining to her that her BMI at 21 is smack in the middle of the ‘normal weight category and that she is simply perfect, the expert and she is not the only such expert, simply writes down diet tips to lose weight for this kid to follow! She forgets or simply doesn’t care enough to explain to this 12-year old the risks of going down to 42 kilos which will take her BMI to 15.5. That a BMI as low as 15.5 would mean eventual vital organ failure, decreased growth and in teen lingo ‘being ugly’.
It doesn’t matter if Italy bans size zero models from the ramp or if ‘Glamour‘ puts a plus size model on its cover or if Louis Vuitton closes the Paris fashion week with ‘models with curves’, the problem of teenage girls suffering from body image distortion is not going away. Not unless, we genuinely start to care. With eating disorders among young teens on the rise, we cannot afford to be so callous. Now this expert’s editor probably didn’t even care what the expert’s reply was, because they think not many people read that section but that little girl is going to read it and probably get very unhappy when she sees that an ‘expert’ agrees that she is fat.
According to me, all this girl needed to hear was, honey you are beautiful and its great that you at such a young age are concerned about maintaining an ideal weight. What ever it is you have been doing is working just fine and keep at it and may be limit your junk food intake or just supplement it with lots of vegetable and fruit because they make your skin look gorgeous!
