Morgan Menzie's Diary Of An Anorexic Girl

The American culture is saturated with messages of inadequacies. Being a adolescent female is becoming more and more difficult as social peruses and mixed messages confuse young women. Eating disorders and mental illness have been on the rise in large part due to these unattainable expectations. Eating disorders amongst teens in the United States often are not careful examined, yet a few brave souls have chosen to break the silence. Morgan Menzie, in her riveting book Diary of an Anorexic Girl, tells the behind the scene account of a young girl battling a severe eating disorder. The text is based strongly on her own personal experience, making the twists and turns of her dark descent even more disturbing. The main character, Blyth, developed

Attention from boys was a huge factor that intrinsically motivated Blyth to continue to lose weight. Her obsessive nature was further intensified by her drive to appeal attractive to Owen, a popular classmate. She vides for his attention over the course of two years. When Owen finally begins to notice her, she thinks that “Maybe it is because I am loosing weight” (27). She directly associates her value with the attention of a boy. She obtains her perceived importance by interpreting how Owen feels about her. Blyth’s inability to see her internal and external beauty on her own, without the approval of others, is very troubling. Unfortunately this is a common trend seen in adolescent girls, and the reproductions can be harmful. Blyth believes that Owen is only concerned with her aesthetic appearance, therefore she seems to place a high value on her weight. She focuses on the physical attraction between her and Owen, instead of the emotional attraction. This leads their relationship to be unstable and short lived, and she copes by further restricting her eating. Her relationship with Owen, and her persistent need to impress him, negatively effects her development of