In the selected memoir, Empty, written by Christie Pettit, the author reflects on her past actions through the text. Unfortunately, Christie struggles with negative body image and eating disorders. She struggles balancing her life: tennis; friends; family; and college studying. All of her stress take a massive toll on her overall well being, indirectly leading to severe anorexia and negative body image.
Originally, Christie meant to slightly alter her eating habits to avoid Freshman 15 (when a freshman in college gains fifteen pounds from lack of exercise and excessive studying), but it became exponentially extreme. First, she decides to swap out soda for water, red meats for lean meats, and sugars for low-fat protein. Then, she completely cut out poultry, grains, and meats. As time passed, extreme healthy eating increasingly became an obsession in her daily life. In the preface, Christie tells the purpose of her memoir is to prevent other young girls from suffering with eating disorders and low self-esteem. The overall questions the memoir is asking is, How do you discover who you are? How do you positively grow as a person?
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During Empty, “I threw myself into achieving in the realm of fitness so that I could feel special. I wanted to be the fittest, the leanest, the thinnest. I had to be the best at something” (Pettit 162). Her self-esteem quickly plummets when she compares herself to everybody. She feels “fat” if she is not the skinniest one in the room. This strong mindset holds Christie back from recovering quickly, and is difficult to overcome. Now, Christie acknowledges this unhealthy behavior and realizes her past