drowned herself in a river full of flowers. I know this probably doesn't exactly happen today, but the theme of Ophelia's loss of self is still applicable in the 90's. Many teenage girls feel an unbelievable amount of pressure from their parents and peers to become something that they are not. One girl that Dr. Pipher counseled said "I am a perfectly good carrot, but everybody wants me to be a rose. But when they carve me into a rose, I turn brown, wither and die." I think that this quote describes the feelings of any teenagers very accurately. We are under constant pressure to fit the profile of our society's ideals, and sometimes don't realize the impossibility of that goal. Young women see models in their magazines and want to look like them, whatever the cost may be. In the 1980's and 1990's there was a huge increase in the reported number of girls with eating disorders. As of 1994 one out of five teenage girls had an eating disorder. This arises from their fear of being fat, which is justified. For children and adolescents being fat means being left out, studies have shown that obese children are less likely to make a lot of friends and are viewed by their peers as being unattractive. I honestly loved this book, I really got into it. It was probably because I could relate so much to what the author was saying, It really helped to hear the stories of other girls who went through the same thing that we all are. There were stories from girls with abusive boyfriends, drug addictions, eating disorders, and almost anything else you could ever imagine. I loved the way the author would tell us about a patient and then connect an individuals problem with a national problem common to many girls. Her writing was very informative and thought provoking, providing and eye opening look at the everyday dangers of being an adolescent. Not only did she write about what happens to girls when they ht adolescence, but s...
