Interview at CarolineLeavittville

Thanks to writer, reviewer, and blogger extraordinaire Caroline Leavitt for posting a thoughtful, thought-provoking interview about Brave Girl Eating on her blog today. I love it when interviewers really get the book--and Caroline did.

Reviewers wanted

I have a favor to ask, dear readers.

If you've already read Brave Girl Eating: A Family's Struggle with Anorexia, would you write an Amazon review of the book? It doesn't have to be long or complex--a two-sentence comment can work just fine.

People actually read those reviews, and make decisions about what to buy from them. I'm doing everything I can to get the word out--not just about the book but about family-based treatment as an option for families.

A great big thank you to you!

Photo ©Forest Wander.

Getting her to eat

In my new blog, Brave Girl Eating, for Psychology Today, I wrote about how we got our daughter to eat when she was in the grip of anorexia. Read it here. I hope it's helpful to those of you who are struggling to help a child or teen with anorexia.

The Diane Rehm Show

Thanks to Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association, and Ovidio Bermudez, M.D., for taking part in the Diane Rehm Show yesterday with me. The subject was eating disorders, and we talked a lot about family-based treatment (the Maudsley approach) as well as Brave Girl Eating. It was an inspiring conversation and I am grateful to all who took part.

You can listen to the segment here.

Atchka!

Thanks to Shannon Russell (alias Atchka) for a good interview about anorexia, Brave Girl Eating, evolution, and other enthralling subjects. You can listen up here.

Russell blogs on a site called Fierce Fatties. It's worth checking out.

I'm happy to report I did not drop the F bomb in this interview. But, like, I really have to, like, stop saying like all the time. Like, know what I mean?

Good Morning America: Cancelled

Please note that my Good Morning America appearance, scheduled for 8/24, has been cancelled for reasons beyond my control.

But there are plenty of other stops along the book tour! Next week: a talk/reading at the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore, and a stop at the Diane Rehm Show in D.C.

Please pass the word about the book--my publisher tells me that early sales figures are the most important. I'd love to see the book gain some momentum in the first weeks after it goes on sale 8/24.

Thanks for all your support!

*I don't know why this image from Mrs. Doubtfire comes up when you search for brave girl eating, but it amuses me.

5 warning signs that your child might have anorexia

Read it at Brave Girl Eating, my blog on Psychology Today's website, and please pass the information to any parents you know who might need the information.

How I wish I'd had this list before Kitty got sick.

Sheppard Pratt Q&A, part III

I'm looking forward to speaking at the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore next Wednesday, Aug. 25, at 7 p.m. I'll be talking about and reading from Brave Girl Eating. Please come out and say hey if you're in the Baltimore area!

Meanwhile, check out Part III of an online Q&A I did with them, which includes 4 essential tips for parents.

For a complete list of stops on the book tour, click here. Hope to see you somewhere along the way.

Memoirville

Here's an interesting interview about Brave Girl Eating on Memoirville, home of Smith Magazine's Six-Word Memoir Project. You'll have to get all the way to the end to read mine.

Note to self: Do not drop the F bomb during interviews.

When families deal with health crises

If your family has ever dealt with a health crisis--whether it's an eating disorder or not--you've probably noticed that some friends step up while others back away. This New York Times piece looks at some of the very common and human reasons why we all back away sometimes, and offers advice for how to be a better friend when those you love are going through something big.

And if you'd care to join an online discussion on the subject, you can do that here.

Jezebel on parents and eating disorders

Jezebel writer Anna North put up a piece today based on an interview we did last week about not just my new book, Brave Girl Eating, but the whole notion of family-based treatment.

The comments, sadly, reveal some of the biases against FBT (the Maudsley approach). Take a look and leave a comment if you are so moved--I think Jezebel readers would benefit by hearing from some who have had positive experiences with FBT.

I'm off to do some deep breathing.

She's not that skinny. Is she?

Why you can't tell if someone has anorexia just by looking. Read about it on my new blog, Brave Girl Eating, here at Psychology Today.

Photo © Steve Pope Photography

We need more FBT therapists!

If you're a therapist who treats eating disorders and you'd like to become certified to do family-based treatment (also known as the Maudsley approach), you're in luck. The Training Institute for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders, run by Drs. Daniel le Grange and James Lock, is hosting a two-day training in Chicago, September 13-14.

For information and to register, visit the Training Institute's website. Because heaven knows we need more FBT therapists around the country/world!

"My daughter's not fat"

This kind of nightmare is what happens, folks, when we have mandated "reporting" of BMIs and other ridiculous "measures" of thinness/fatness. Especially for children, who are still growing and who do not grow in a linear fashion.

This particular incident happened in the UK. But it could easily happen here, now that states like Arkansas and New York require it, and other states are considering it.

You say that this is an extreme case? That overall, BMI reporting is a good idea? Read these talking points from the Eating Disorders Coalition.

Our language around these issues is loaded and complex, because we have made it so. We've made fat a dirty word that connotes so many negative qualities: lazy, greedy, sloppy, messy, stupid, unattractive . . . . No wonder 11-year-old Katie Owen reacted the way she did. She's not the first, and she will not be the last.

Brave Girl Eating: Q&A, Part II

The second part of the Q&A on Sheppard Pratt's blog is now live. I hope you'll check it out. Drop me a comment if you're in Baltimore and think you might make the reading--I'd love to meet you!

Brave Girl Eating: Q&A

In preparation for my upcoming book talk at the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt, the kind folks there are posting a Q&A interview on their blog over the next 10 days or so. Part 1 is up. And if you're going to be in Baltimore on August 25, please stop by the reading--I think it's going to be an inspiring event.

100,000 hits

When I started this blog in 2006, I had no idea I'd still be at it four years later.

Today, the 100,000th visitor stopped by the blog. I realize that's not a huge number, given stats on the big blogs. But for a little independent blog like this, it feels huge.

So thank you to my readers, those who agree with my opinions and those who don't, those who educate me and those who merely lurk. I am richer for having you as part of my community, and I hope I've offered something back in return.

As a way to say thank you, I'm going to run a book giveaway on the site. Stay tuned for details!

Don't get mad. Get out your Exacto knife.

That's what this furious citizen did when confronted by an offensive ad for thin pretzels.

What if we all "corrected" ads like this? They can't arrest all of us. . . .

Annals of retouching disaster: The Ann Taylor shirt

Thanks to a technical screw-up by someone at Ann Taylor (I'm thinking heads will roll over this), Jezebel was able to grab screen captures of a model before and after retouching.

Here's what the site ran:



You can see the work that's been done. As Jezebel put it, the "unretouched thumbnails . . . transform [models] into ribless monstrosities."

The model on the left--the unretouched one--is beautiful, shapely, and wears the clothing well. So why, why, why turn her into the absurd image on the right? I don't think it's enough to cite the pursuit of thinness. The model on the left is already thin--you can see her ribs, for God's sake. I think there's something more at stake here. Something that has to do less with beauty-qua-beauty and more to do with how women are perceived in 21st-century America--and how we perceive ourselves.

I can't help thinking about the timing of all these retouching debacles. There was the Calvin Klein photoshop disaster:



Then there was the Self magazine Kelly Clarkson debacle (see below).



Technology has something to do with it, of course. We photoshop because we can, because human beings are compulsive changers-of-reality and even more relentless self-improvers, and can't pass up an opportunity to "iimprove" ourselves.

Except that these kinds of "improvements" are so far out of the mainstream, no one (I hope) would confuse them with reality. Which brings me back to the idea that there's something more going on here.

Women have never been as powerful in America as we are today. And even though we still have a ways to go (can you say "woman president in my lifetime?), we've made enormous progress since I was a young thing. And thanks to the Great Recession, women's work and employment levels may be surpassing men's for the first time.

And maybe that's the problem. Maybe the Trojan Horse of self-loathing embodied in images like these is meant to put us uppity women in our place. I've said it before and I'll say it again: So long as we're obsessed with our appearance, our looks, how thin we are or aren't, we're missing the boat on a whole lot of more important issues.

I can't help thinking there's a connection.

Psychology Today

Over the next few months I'll be blogging over at Psychology Today as well as here on Feed Me!. PT has an impressive roster of bloggers who tackle some fascinating issues, and I'm honored to be among them. I'll link to my posts there, starting with my inaugural post; those posts will focus on eating disorders. I'll still post here about other issues of interest.

If you head over there and read the blog, and like it, leave a comment if you would--make me feel at home there. :)

Happy Monday!