Over It

National studies show that 65 percent of 11-year-old girls worry that they are too fat; 80 percent of eleven-year-old girls report dieting; and 90 percent of high school juniors and seniors diet regularly. Every year, desperate parents try to save their daughters from starving themselves to death. Yet every year, more girls eat less to look like their favorite supermodels. With this sobering fact in mind, Carol Emery Normandi and Lauralee Roark developed this book based on their ongoing workshops and the feedback of hundreds of young women. They look at the behaviors that may lead to eating disorders and the cultural, emotional, and physical reasons girls obsess about weight and eating. They go on to offer girls and their parents a map and a method for finding a realistic and livable balance. Stories and quotations from girls who have struggled with eating disorders give the book immediacy, and exercises and writing suggestions steer the girls toward a healthy self-image and wholesome eating patterns. This book teaches young women the language of natural body image and healthy eating and gives parents the skills to guide their daughters toward a healthy self-esteem.
Carol Emery Normandi cofounded Beyond Hunger, a nonprofit organization, after recovering from her own eating disorder. She and her cofounder, Laurelee Roark, wanted to create a program that incorporated the philosophies that helped them, including intuitive eating, emotional processing, and body acceptance. Beyond Hunger offers support groups, workshops, and education for adults and teens with eating disorders and body image disturbances. "Over It teaches young women the language of healthy body image and natural eating and gives parents the skills to guide their daughters toward self-esteem and contentment. This much-needed book will help young women understand their feelings and learn to love and care for their bodies."