I-+Research+Paper

For our action project, we chose to take action with two well-known eating disorders: Bulimia and Anorexia. Earlier this year, we had done gender projects on Bulimia and Anorexia so we were educated on the backgrounds of the diseases. They are both very dangerous and unhealthy issues that girls all over the world deal with. They start with either anxiety or depression. Girls become so afraid that they won’t be accepted, so they try and make themselves perfect. We are told through many different outlets that we should be skinny, perfect and beautiful. But is stick skinny really beautiful? We both agree that staving yourself or making yourself throw up to be skinny is not a beautiful thing. Being who you really are, and loving yourself is beautiful. We wanted to take action and present our views on body image and eating disorders to other girls in our school community.

For our gender projects, we each worked on one of the eating disorders. Hannah researched bulimia and Emma did anorexia. Bulimia is an eating disorder that is defined as bingeing and purging. Girls start on a strict diet, and then they get hungry because they’re starving themselves. They’ll eat a lot of food, and then be angry that they eat because they were trying to lose weight. Girls then assume that if they just get the food out of their bodies, then they’ll be skinnier automatically. So, then they purge and they feel better about themselves. The fact is that when you start the binge and purge cycle, it’s extremely hard to get off of it. In order to get off, you have to go through excessive therapy and support group meetings. Anorexia is another severe eating disorder that is more about not wanting to eat. Girls will refuse food and say that they’re not hungry in order to lose weight. Another symptom is wanting to cook for other people and then not eat it. Many people have died from Anorexia due to how little nutrition they get.

Hannah- The day that I presented her project to the class, I went home with one of my best friends. I had thought for a while that she might have an eating disorder, but I blocked that thought out of my head because it was too hard to deal with. That night she had confronted me and told me that yes, she had been suffering from Bulimia. I was so confused. I had never had body image issues and now someone so close to my heart was going through something so powerful. She told me that she had stopped, and I stupidly believed her. I carried on with being her best friend, and thinking I could trust her on her word. Three months later she is counting calories with on app on her phone and watching her weight consistently. I hated hearing her complain about her weight, and I knew I should do something but I didn’t. I didn’t talk to her about how scared I was for her. I didn’t talk to her parents. I just sat back and watched her hate her body. Someone finally stepped in, and helped her and she is finally getting professional help.

Emma- After doing the research project on Anorexia I knew that I would want to do something to help the issue. I knew somewhat about what it was but I really didn’t know the seriousness and facts about it. I also didn’t know a lot about Bulimia and since I have struggled with it, I have wanted to know more and more. Also, learning about it helped me with it and helped me know about the consequences and scariness of it. Ever since I was little I have cared a whole lot about my weight. Even when I was in younger grades I would compare myself to other people because I always thought they were better than me. There is an organization with Several Dancer’s Core that works with younger girls and teaches them about eating disorders. They work with younger girls, so that they can catch the sickness early and stop it from happening.

We want to educate other girls so that if their loved one has an eating disorder or any kind of harmful disease they can do something to stop it before it gets really dangerous. We really want to raise awareness of this issue and stop it from getting really bad. Neither of us wants girls to carry on hating themselves for their bodies, because when they do they go so far to try to be perfect. Having self confidence is a big part of being a teenage girl, but when you don’t it isn’t healthy to try and change yourself to fit other people’s standards. We want every girl in our school, and eventually all over to world, to feel happy and fortunate to have their body. We want to make every girl feel loved, beautiful and perfect in her own way.

To take action, we have set out to educate all the 7th and 8th grade girls at Paideia about bulimia and anorexia. We decided to hold a meeting with all the girls during a lunch period. We have worked together to create a PSA on all the information we know about both diseases. We’re planning on showing the PSA, talking about two different organizations that help girls deal with eating disorders, and we are going to talk about our personal experiences with the two diseases. Another thing we have planned to do is black out every mirror that any junior high girl had access to. That means that all the bathroom mirrors will be completely black with inspirational quotes tapped onto the black paper. Things like, “You are beautiful,” and, “Love is louder than the pressure to be perfect,” will lift every junior high girls spirits for at least one day. We think that one day of not being able to judge yourself on your looks, and one day of education on two harmful diseases might be able to make a difference in our community.