Comments on: High school label may influence body image, eating disorders

By: Diane

Diane — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:12:06 +0000

I wasn’t fat during high school, but I always felt I was the “fattest” among my skinny friends. I didn’t like to party that much, but that didn’t mean I was excluded from other moments of socialization. Today I’m glad I spent most of my free time reading in my bedroom, and I’ve been learning how to stop trying to please everybody for them not to notice how boring I am

By: Juliet

Juliet — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:25:08 +0000

For me, it was more junior high into my freshman year that had the biggest impact on my perceptions of myself. I’d been “the fat kid” since second grade. However, for several years of that time, I wasn’t truly fat – and though it bothered me, I don’t think I cared that much. Maybe part of me knew I wasn’t fat or wasn’t that concerned with what the “skinny girls” thought. I don’t know.

I changed schools half way through six grade after moving to a new town. The first half of that year I went to a religious school that was really a cult. So I really had two school changes, which is very hard on any child, but especially in those puberty years.

Sixth grade wasn’t too awful, but seventh grade was a nightmare. I had gained quite a bit of weight, and felt awful about myself. My hair was going through a phase, it was always greasy… I didn’t fit in at all. I wasn’t cute and thin, I wasn’t the cheerleader type. I didn’t have a boyfriend. I was quiet, shy and academically I wasn’t doing well, either. I was more than capable, but my home life was in disarray and my teachers, frankly, sucked ass.

I moved back to the town where I’d been in school in 5th grade just in time for 8th grade. Though I was technically supposed to stay back because of my dismal grades, the school knew me and knew I was capable of better. However, I was put into the “lower sections” of all subjects. Basically, we had an 8-1 and and 8-2 and then there were levels for various subjects, too. I quickly advanced out of the lowest reading group to the highest, but it was small comfort. At least when I was in 5th grade and was the fat kid, I was also a smart kid. Now I was fat and stupid.

I also was gaining weight at an alarming rate. My eating disorder really blossomed during sixth and seventh grades. In part, I think, because I’d lived with my aunt prior to that and she’d had me on a super restrictive diet. Once I could eat again, I had no idea how to stop.

At the start of freshman year, I was 254 pounds. That was early September. By late March of the following year, I was 325 pounds. Which illustrates just how quickly I was gaining weight.

What saved me, though, was not going to school. It resulted in the school psychologist getting involved and me asking to be “classified” so I could go to an alternative school. My high school was so warm and welcoming and though I was painfully shy my first year there (especially in regards to eating in front of people), I was among misfits. There were still “groups,” but I eventually found one for myself. I was still self-conscious, but it was incredibly rare that anyone said anything about my weight and on the only occasion I remember that happening it was a stupid boy who said something snarky. But really, one comment in three years? For a girl who was over 300 pounds, I couldn’t ask for more.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:53:05 +0000

In high school, and even in college for a bit, I was soooo goth. I had no idea how to fit in and be myself(which was and is slightly weird and different, but goth is hardly different or weird these days). What surprised me is that for people who complain so much about how much society sucks, all of the other goth girls were focused on being skinny, like the vast majority of society.

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:15:40 +0000

Sadly, the time in my scholastic life when I got tormented the most about my weight was elementary school. I was bullied (mostly by boys) from third grade on, known as ‘the fat girl’ and ’saddle bags’. My two best friends were also heavyset and got teased. In junior high I was still a bit chubbier than most of my size 2 peers, coming in around a size 8. People said mean things about me, but usually not to my face. In high school I was generally liked, mostly because the people in my high school were wonderful (Go Boise High School!) and the ‘popular’ people tended to be the intelligent and involved kids (AP, Choir/Band/Orchestra, Key Club). However, now that I am in college I find that attitudes are worse. I am a size 14 and am usually the biggest person in the room. It is difficult to swallow because I am very involved (Gay Straight Alliance, sorority, job, boyfriend, volunteering) in having a good and meaningful life, but I am still constantly looked down on by the throngs of wealthy girls who have nothing better to do with their time than work out multiple hours a day. I constantly have to remind myself that it is okay to accept my body and that thin does not equal healthy.

By: Charlynn

Charlynn — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:26:43 +0000

I was the loner/outcast in high school. I developed clinical depression at 16, which went undiagnosed because everyone thought it was just “teenager blues.” I mostly wanted to be left alone, and most of the time got my wish. It was a rough three years that felt like a complete waste of time.

In terms of my body at that time, I hated it and was more toward the heavier side of “normal” for my height. I didn’t feel pretty in any way but didn’t do much about it, either. I did my writing and hid the best I could. As a result, I was largely ignored by my classmates, which I didn’t mind one bit.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:43:48 +0000

I was a drama nerd with a little speech and debate on the side. This may have been just my school but the “jocks” didn’t seem to have a problem with their own personal weight but man did they have a problem with everybody else’s weight. They set the standard for what everybody was supposed to look like. From weight to what clothes and hair style was in. In my school the “jocks” were gods and treated that way by peers and adults. Why would they have a body image problem? They were treated better then anybody in the entire school.

but that could have been just my school……

By: jamboree

jamboree — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:23:14 +0000

Drama nerd. Friends with the band nerds, but never in band. I played track and field, but could never run fast enough, so I stuck to shotput and discus. That was fun (grueling laps up and down the bleachers, though). I don’t really remember being made fun of for being fat, to be honest. I wore sleeveless tops and tiny shorts because my (similar sized) friend did, and she was hella confident. I wasn’t interested in the stuff the ‘popular’ kids got up to, and had lots of family problems to keep me occupied!

I liked high school well enough, but I’m very happy to never revisit those years again.

By: Mara C

Mara C — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:58:13 +0000

for me, its pretty hard to imagine how belonging in any group in high school you would be free from any negative body image or pressure to be thin. although i certainly find it as no surprise that the girls who identified as ‘jocks’ in the study were less concerned about their weight, and less likely to take measures to control their weight. i think its down to the fact that any sort of involvement in athletic activity brings with it the idea that the body is not just for show- its for doing great things with, and they may place more value on what their own bodies can do, instead of just what they look like.
i go to a private girls school in a wealthy suburb in melbourne, australia, and would say that at my school, nobody really talks about their bodies all that much, although the pressure to be thin is certainly there, in that being thin at my school certainly holds with it some sort of exclusivety (if that is a word), as if in being thin you always have the upper ground, no matter what another girl can dish out at you you’re always thinner than her- and ultimately that matters a lot, even though no one actively talks about it.
mostly what you look like matters so much at a girls school, since the more boys you can get the better you are- this usually involves lots of fake tan, foundation and short tunics or dresses ( we wear a school uniform like all schools in australia), and yes, how much you weigh really matters in this.
most of our year level is of an average weight, and in our year of 40 odd girls we only have about 3 or 4 girls who are considered overweight (and only just really), and 2 of these girls are extremely athletic, playing in all the sports teams and watching what they eat.

By: Fat Girl

Fat Girl — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:11:07 +0000

Wow, when you were saying what “group” you were in high school- that was pretty much me, except I did drama/choir instead of band. I also was sort of artsy, and into FFA and 4-H so I vacillated between all these different groups, never feeling quite like I was a full part of one.

By: lilacsigil

lilacsigil — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:04:01 +0000

My highschool experience seems to be a little different – I was a total D&D playing nerd, and most of my friends were boys. Despite my school being extremely athletic, I was almost never (twice in six years) harrassed by other students about my weight, though the sports teacher was another story! I also played sport and was active, though I was not particularly good at it. The pressure to lose weight (though, looking back, I had a BMI of 23!) was at home, so school was actually a pretty pleasant place to be. There certainly was an “in-crowd” who were obsessed with appearance and dieting, but they seemed to focus entirely on themselves, not on girls who weren’t trying to be in their group.