I wrote yesterday’s post about this being National Eating Disorders Awareness week a few hours before taking my six-year-old son to see the new animated kids’ movie, Gnomeo and Juliet. This rated G spoof of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, though occasionally violent and sometimes off-color, was fully aimed at kids.

So you can imagine my horror (and yes, it truly was horror) when during a scene in which Juliet, the heroine of the movie, was standing on her best friend’s back (a frog) to catch a better glimpse of her love interest (Gnomeo), the best friend spoke these words:

“You know he’s going to ditch you when he finds out how much you weigh!”

Wait a sec…had I heard that correctly? I did a double take and looked around the theatre. Happy little faces, mostly of girls between the ages of four and ten, stared gleefully at the screen. I guess the more important question was, had they heard that?

“You know he’s going to ditch you when he finds out how much you weigh!”

And that’s how it starts. A little line from a movie, a thoughtless commercial, a mother’s look of disapproval at her own reflection in the mirror, magazine ads, billboards, snide comments…they all add up. The seeds are planted and bit by bit, word by word, message by message, girls slowly internalize the notion that thin is good, thinner is better. That thin will bring you happiness, love, approval, and worth.

And it’s messages like the one in this movie that contribute to these very scary statistics:

• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat
• 46% of 9-11 year-olds are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets

So my question to the writers of Gnomeo and Juliet is this … REALLY? The best you can do to try and elicit laughter from an audience full of children is to deliver a fat joke? The best you can do in your attempt to be funny is remind girls that their weight matters when it comes to getting what they want in life?

Next time, how about trying smart humor? You know, the kind that isn’t offensive and makes the audience actually feel good about themselves making their ribs ache with laughter?

And the next time? Remember that every word counts.

This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, a special week aimed at preventing eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment.

The theme for this year is “talk about it.” As the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) explains, “We live in a culture saturated with unrealistic body-image messages and almost all of us know somebody struggling with an eating disorder. Because this is true, we urge you to talk about it and do just on thing to raise awareness.”

Here are three things NEDA wants everyone to know about eating disorders:

1. Eating disorders are serious illnesses, not lifestyle choices. Eating disorders are complex conditions that arise from a combination of long-standing behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, biological and social factors. As our natural body size and shape is largely determined by genetics, fighting our natural size and shape can lead to unhealthy dieting practices, poor body image and decreased self-esteem. While eating disorders may begin with preoccupations with food and weight, they are about much more than food. In the United States, as many as 10 million females and 1 million males are fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Approximately 15 million more are struggling with binge eating disorder.
2. Education, early intervention, and access to care are critical. In the United States, we are inundated with messages telling us that thinner is better, and when we “fit” our culture’s impossible beauty standards, we will be happy. Did you know that 80% of all ten year olds are afraid of being fat? As a culture, it is time for all communities to talk about eating disorders, address their contributing factors, advocate for access to treatment and take action for early intervention.
3. Help is available, and recovery is possible. While eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening illnesses, there is help available and recovery really is possible. It is important for those affected to remember that they are not alone in their struggle; others have recovered and are now living healthy fulfilling lives. Let the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) be a part of your network of support. NEDA has information and resources available via our website and helpline: 800 931-2237.

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If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, please check out my friend and fellow member of the Confidence Community (TM) Johanna Kandel’s book, Johanna struggled with her eating disorder for ten years before finally getting help. She founded the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness in 2000 to do community outreach, education, awareness, and prevention of various eating disorders, to share the message that recovery from these disorders is possible, and make sure that those suffering from eating disorders don’t have to recover alone.

In her powerful new book, Johanna offers tools and insight for those with eating disorders so they can:

• Stop self-sabotage and sidestep triggers
• Quiet the eating-disordered voice
• Strengthen the healthy, positive voice
• Let go of all-or-nothing thinking
• Overcome fear and embrace change
• Stay motivated and keep moving forward

Complete with inspiring true stories from others who have won their personal battles with eating disorders, this book provides the help you need to break free from your eating disorder and discover how wonderful life really can be.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, last week I celebrated the release of my first novel, ! Language of Love was originally slated to be part of Simon Pulse’s popular Romantic Comedy series (see the original cover on this version that was supposed to come out last June!), but due to changes in the publishing industry and how bookstores are buying books, Simon Pulse decided to create beautiful 2-book collections of romantic comedies (I say beautiful because look at what a great job they did with my cover!).

My book was paired up with Caroline Goode’s novel Cupidity to create the collection Love, Love, Love, which, as the back of the cover describes, contains “Two sweet stories about finding your one true love.”

Last Wednesday, I gathered a bunch of people together at indie bookstore Secret Garden Books in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle for a night of trivia (a quiz on romantic comedy movies filmed in Seattle), treats (heart-shaped Peeps, cupcakes, and more), and a reading. The turnout was great, and I was especially grateful for the support of some of my fellow YA writers in Seattle, all superstars in their own right, including Kevin Emerson (creator of the Oliver Nocturne series) and three fantastic Readergirlz Divas, Martha Brockenbrough, Holly Cupala, and Liz Gallagher (that’s a pic of me with Holly and Liz below). You can read Liz’s coverage of the book launch and enter to win a free copy of Love, Love, Love over at the Readergirlz blog here.

I’m doing a blog tour on some fantastic YA book review sites in the coming weeks. To stay up to date on the tour, read my guest blog posts, interviews, and have more opportunities to enter and win a copy of Love, Love, Love, !

XOXO Debbie