The Best Thing About My Ass Is That It's Behind Me by Lisa Ann Walter

Author:Lisa Ann Walter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapter 12

The Trauma of the Tween-age Girl

Every time we are verbally negative about ourselves, we send a message to our daughters—or the young women we influence—that they aren’t OK just as they are. Having a teenage daughter myself, I have an awful lot of regret for negative things I said about my body in front of her. It is such a big responsibility and it has so much impact: how we teach our girls to feel about themselves is a direct result of how we view ourselves.

I wish I’d figured this stuff out years ago—but here’s a partial list of no-no’s:

• Don’t stand up directly after enjoying your birthday cake and loudly announce that you’re not touching cake again until you’re over seventy and no one will ever, ever want to see you naked.

• While doing yard work, don’t wonder aloud whether sandpaper would be a good loofah for your thigh issue.

• Don’t scream at the mirror while trying on bathing suits at Target. Yes, we all know that fluorescent lights are the tool of the devil—but not only is your kid watching, so are the security cameras, and you look like a crazy person. And when I say you, I mean me.

My serious point is that teenage girls—and much younger—are under more pressure than ever to be rock stars. Reality TV has inspired a generation of girls to expect themselves to look professionally awesome. And their ability to be accepting of anything less than Hot, Thin, Perfect . . . is seriously compromised. And they’re getting harder and harder on themselves. I get it. I do. I’m just scared not only for my own daughter—but for all of these girls.

What follows are some exchanges with girls who’ve written to me about their body images. Seriously, if this shit doesn’t break your heart . . . well, I don’t’ know what you’re made of, but it isn’t much heart.

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