Body Image In YA Literature

Many young adult novels portray body image as an important component to an individual’s ability to prosper. In Do I look Fat? Body Image in YA literature, Beth Younger argues that a teenage girl’s ability to attain status and power is directly linked to her physical appearance. According to Younger, the female body must achieve the “contemporary ultrathin standard of beauty” (Younger 3) in order to attain control, power, and responsibility. If this gaze of a female body is not met, that individual will be looked upon as irresponsible, especially in her sexuality, and will miss out on the “American Dream” (Younger 7). Isabel Quintero’s Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, defies this binary expectation, as demonstrated by Gabi’s agency and representation

Changing the gaze on physical appearances in novels written for teenage girls can help readers see that a person’s weight does not determine their destiny, and creates a healthy image readers can follow. Dorothy Karlin explains how most YA novels that try to address healthy weight standards, often lead to plot lines based on characters dieting and never achieving self-acceptance until the end of the story, when they finally lose weight. These books reiterate that “thinness still represents normalcy; the obese person simply decides that he/she will not be able to obtain normalcy and agrees to go about life as abnormal, to remain a freak” (Karlin 75). While being obese is not healthy, dieting to fit standards can lead to unhealthy habits, as well. Quintero’s novel puts a character’s physical appearance in a new light. At the end of the novel, Gabi has friends, a boyfriend, and graduated high school. Unlike other YA novels where characters only feel accomplished once they lose weight, Gabi’s accomplishments come in different forms. Gabi is not represented as an outcast, she is represented as a regular high school girl trying create a better life for herself. Quintero’s novel creates a new norm for young adult literature that correlates success with the accomplishments a character achieves, rather than a character’s number on a scale. By doing so, readers can follow by Gabi’s example and focus on their education, friendships, and romantic relationships, which will help fix the skewed perception YA literature has created about a teenage girl’s body