PURGE, a "poignant yet funny journey of a teenager winning her battle with bulimia," will be coming out in Spring 2009 from Scholastic.
As a recovered bulimic myself, I feel very passionate about this story. I spent way too much of my life hating my body, and even though I'm about 30 pounds heavier than I was when I was a teenager, I like myself much better than when I had a "better" figure. It wasn't an easy journey to get where I am today, but it certainly was a worthwhile one.
Part of the inspiration for the novel came from finding this picture of myself at 16. Looking at this picture as my forty-something year-old self, I thought, "Wow, I had a good figure."
But I still remember how I felt when I was the sixteen-year old girl in that picture. How I thought I was fat...and ugly.
Looking at the picture made me sad. Sad for my 16 year old self. Sad for all the other girls - and guys - who look in the mirror and hate what they see.
There's a line in "Lucky Man", by the Verve, that goes: "Happiness...Something in my own place, I'm stood here naked, Smiling, I feel no disgrace, With who I am." I remember listening to that over and over, wanting to feel that about myself.
Today I'm in that place. And you can be too.
If you want to learn more about the symptoms and treatment of Eating Disorders, click here for some useful links.