I’ll start eating healthy tomorrow. Making myself throw up isn’t unhealthy, I get to eat the food and be thin. I’ll skip just one more meal. We like to lie to ourselves. When we lie, if it’s about eating or anything else, we eventually convince ourselves that we’re right.


How many more kids and teenagers will starve themselves because they want to look a certain way, or fit in at school? How many more commercials will give the impression that if you don’t look like the models, photoshopped, airbrushed and completely fake, you don’t look good? How many more parents will be oblivious to the fact that their kid is unhappy with their appearance and will go to any extreme to change it?


Over the years, the pressure on kids and teenagers has increased. Whether from their peers, the media, or sometimes even their family, the number of eating disorders in our country has been steadily increasing. Imagine eating one meal a day, then sticking your finger down your throat until you throw up. Imagine feeling that the only way people will like you is if you lose weight. Imagine ignoring your hunger even though you’re starving yourself, because you’ve learned to ignore it. This is what hundreds of kids and teenagers go through every day.


50% of girls between the ages of 11 and 13 see themselves as overweight, and 80% of all 13 year olds in the U.S. have tried to lose weight. According to Dr. Kathryn J. Zerbe,a pediatrician , “ The occasional pizza or ice cream splurge with friends does not make you a binge eater. The specific diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or atypical eating disorder must be rendered when the pursuit of thinness becomes more serious” . Almost half of the girls who reported being on a diet said it was because of magazine pictures or other kinds of media. Many people think harmful eating disorders only affect girls, but plenty of guys have tried to either gain or lose weight, usually related to a sport. Too many kids and teenagers are convinced that there’s something wrong with the way they look, so they decide to change it, but in a way that could affect their health for their whole lives. Kidney failure, liver damage, and anemia are just some of the long term effects of eating disorders.


Sometimes, you’re one of the lucky ones if you get off with a life long disease. 15 year old Anna Wood decided to go on a post-Christmas diet along with her mother, hoping to lose a few pounds. Instead, she kept on eating less and less calories everyday and eventually was admitted to the hospital. Unfortunately, it was too late. Just over a year after she started her diet, Anna Wood died at age 16. Like Anna Wood, Laura Schultz began to feel self conscious about herself at a very young age. Her doctor told her, “ You’re going to be in and out of hospitals for the rest of your life, bulimia is never fully curable”. Another example is Anthony Troupe Jr. . A normal eighth grader in some ways, with a good work ethic and an important player on the football team. His heart failure was because of his obesity, and he collapsed on the football field during a game.


These are only some of the tragedies that have happened either because a teenager or kid doesn’t see themselves as good enough, or because they are obese. Obesity in children is almost never entirely the kid’s fault it has to do with the environment they’re brought up in and the people around them. This is a problem that shouldn’t all be put on the shoulders of the kids and teenagers. Parents and other family members need to set a good example, and the media is also a big influence.

Imagine you’re walking home from school on a Friday. The long weekend stretches ahead of you and you feel like nothing could bring you down. As you’re walking, you pass by a magazine stand you see a stick thin model, with the words “ How to get thin: Fast” . That makes you remember the big slice of pizza you ate for lunch. You shrug it off and keep walking. Then you pass a billboard advertising dieting pills. That makes you remember the stack of pancakes you ate for breakfast. You run home, sprint to your bathroom, bend over, and stick your finger down your throat. All of the food you eat today comes pouring out of your mouth, and you can’t seem to stop it. You wipe your mouth, flush the toilet, and walk out like nothing happened. Your stomach aches, your head is throbbing, and the room is spinning around you. At least you can feel good about yourself. At least other kids won’t look at you and think you’re fat, right? But your whole body hurts and you feel even hungrier than before. This was the last time, you tell yourself. You won’t do it again, because it’s not worth it.

The next day, it happens again.