Am I just getting old?

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(funny story. I have THE perfect photo to put here, but it's my mother-in-law in one of those perfect grumpy old woman shots and I don't imagine it'd go down to well,lol.  Shame though.

Maybe I'm getting crotchety in my old age.  Maybe I've got too many 'pet peeves'. And maybe, as an obese diabetic, I'm the last woman who should be talking about this.

But hey, it's my blog and I get to talk about whatever I want, right? (Well, unless it's family members who annoy me.  Then it's off limits, apparently).

There was an article in The Punch yesterday, talking about Anorexia and where we place 'blame' (I'm not sure this is the right word) for it.

Article here. (Excuse the really bad pun in the headline.  I'm so glad I didn't write it).  It was written in response to an article in the U.K's daily mail, reporting an alarming rise in the number of very young children (under 10) being treated for eating disorders.

Now that I'm done rolling my eyes at the headline, the Punch article does make some good points. I'm not necessarily arguing with that.  I do think that we need to re-think how we look at Anorexia and other eating disorders and place them firmly in with addictions and other mental illnesses. 

This isn't just about girls wanting attention, or trying to be cool or thin. It goes so much further than that.  It is an addiction as real as alcoholism, drug abuse and the like.  As the article pointed out:

- eating disorders have nothing to do with food or wanting to be super skinny. They’re an addiction, like being an alcoholic or drug addict, and have everything to do with self-esteem. Some people choose to address those feelings with gin; some with heroin; and some by going to the gym for three hours a day and subsisting on nothing but apples.

But I think that in defending models and the fashion industry, saying they don't cause anorexia, it glosses over somewhat this issue of self esteem.  And I don't think we can really, honestly overlook the part that advertising, the fashion industry, the film industry and modelling agencies play in this.

Case in point.  I was looking at a gossip site just this morning (I know, I know. I'm such a hypocrite) and came across this snippet. It's title?

"Kendell Jenner's Stunning Swimwear Shoot".  Now, I had to look up who Kendell was (she's a Kardashian sister? I thought they were all a lot curvier, but not this one.  And more disturbing {than being a Kardashian}she's just 15), so definately someone that pre-teens and early teenage girls are looking up to.

This was the accompanying photo.

A better look, from her sister Kim's website.

'Kendall is the new face of Australian swimwear designer Leah Madden'sSummer 2012 campaign Pirouette!!,' Kim announced on her website.

She added: 'How stunning does she look!?!? I couldn't be more proud!'

So here's the bit where I get crotchety.  I have a 12 year old niece.  She's entered those difficult pubescent years of agonising over how she looks, trying to fit into the right {read - cool} kids, just moved to a new school.  Now Jada's lucky.  She's beautiful (and how horrible is it that that's what's considered lucky).  So hopefully she isn't going to feel too much pressure to lose weight to fit in.

But so many girls at this age do. So many of them are looking at girls like Kendall and thinking that this is what you have to look at to be successful and beautiful and popular.  I read 3 separate articles this morning on Kendall's photoshoot, hoping to find just one that points out the obvious.

This girl is emaciated. She's not just thin.  She hasn't just not 'developed' her curves yet.  She is rail think, not an ounce of fat to be found. I don't want to get too deeply into the age-appropriate debate (though I did find some of the photoshoots she's done questionable for a girl of 14 and 15, and were her father my father, a coronary and a grounding would have been involved), but am I the only one who thinks that this is an unhealthy image to present to our girls?

I'm not a mother of daughters. I wish I were, but a part of me is sorry for those that are.  About the pressures and stresses they are going to come up against as their girls get older.  Or maybe I'm wrong, and this isn't as big a deal as I think it is.  But I can't help but think that it's no coincidence.

The article in the daily mail, when talking about the disturbing trend among primary school aged children to now be treated for anorexia and other eating disorders, noted:

The statistics, released by NHS trusts around Britain under the freedom of information act, underline the worry that youngsters – particularly girls – are increasingly obsessed with being thin.



Many idolise ultra-slim models and celebrities they see in magazines and on TV, and try to slim in the hope they will look similar.


Senior doctors and nutritionists warn that very young children are developing an ‘unhealthy relationship’ with food.

Girls in particular often compare themselves to their friends and in some cases will even compete to see who can lose the most weight. Experts warn that girls are now beginning to compare themselves with ‘size zero’ models and celebrities when they are still at primary school.

Susan Ringwood, chief executive of the eating disorders charity Beat, said some are so frightened of developing curves when they reach puberty that they starve themselves to try to keep their slender child-like figures. 

She said: ‘The ideal figure promoted for women these days is that of a girl, not an adult women. Girls see the pictures in magazines of extremely thin women and think that is how they should be.

‘That can leave them fearful of puberty, and almost trying to stave it off.

‘A number of factors combine to trigger eating disorders; biology and genetics play a large part in their development, but so do cultural pressures, and body image seems to be influencing younger children much more over the past decade.’


A recent survey by the YMCA suggested that nearly half of girls had been on a diet before their 14th birthday.  Nearly one in seven would consider taking slimming pills and one in 20 would take laxatives, according to the poll of more than 800 youngsters.

Aren't these numbers terrifying? To those of you with daughters (and I know that boys too can be affected, and I've even heard my son's 8 year old friends talk about being fat; though Alexander is so far blissfully unaware of this kind of thing, I don't think it'll be too long), are you worried? Do you fear this kind of constant exposure to the elusive Size 0 and what it means for girls today?

What can you do to stop it? Have you started taking steps to talk to girls about self esteem and body image? What do you think is the best way to do this, given the amount of influence the media has on all of us?

How do we fight against this, and make our children see that this ^^ is literally someone who is ill?  Someone who could die?  How do we make them see her as anything but a model on the catwalks of Paris and Milan, living 'every girl's' dream?  Or Posh as someone married to the football star or the rock star and held up as a fashion icon?  Keira making movies with Hollywood's hottest men? Nicole with her own fashion line and considered glamourous?

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 Is it a storm in a teacup? Or is this something that you, as a parent, are worried about?