Description:
"Nobody is born with a negative body image. It is something that you learn, something that develops over time." One of the more subtle titles in the Teen Health Library of Eating Disorder Prevention series, What's Real, What's Ideal: Overcoming a Negative Body Image offers a thoughtful, thorough, and pragmatic exploration of the relationship between teenagers' perceptions of their bodies and their overall health and well being. Bursting with factual information, realistic color photographs, and mini-stories about teens' challenges with their physical appearances, this book maintains a casual and friendly tone throughout. It's the kind of honest, informative text that flies off school library shelves. Aimed at both male and female teens, What's Real engages readers with quizzes and checklists to help them determine if they're suffering from negative body image or displaying warning signs of an eating disorder. It tracks the causes of negative body image and discusses what this attitude can lead to--excessive dieting, compulsive eating, full-blown eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, even self-mutilation. The most remarkable part of the book is the final third, which urges teens to take responsibility for their attitudes about their bodies. Acknowledging that "it may be the hardest thing you ever do," author Brangien Davis offers up pages and pages of creative, concrete suggestions to help teens recast their views of themselves and--in turn--the world around them. (Ages 11 and older) --Jean Lenihan
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