Huffington Magazine Issue 40 | Page 27

Voices ISABELLA HUFFINGTON GETTY IMAGES/AMANA IMAGES RF Underfed THERE ARE ONLY two types of women who are excited to get their periods: those who are afraid they’re pregnant, and those who have lost it prematurely. I lost my period the way other women lose their car keys, not once or twice, but habitually. I kept losing it, because I have spent most of my life dangerously underweight, struggling from ages 11-20 with anorexia of varying levels of intensity. Getting my period meant I was healthy. And that was the problem. I didn’t want to be healthy; I wanted to be skinny more than I wanted to be anything else. When I was 11, a friend asked me what superpower I wanted. I told her I wanted to be invisible. I was surprisingly perturbed the first time I got my period. I was at dinner with my father. We were eating steaks, mine well-done, his medium-rare. I watched the blood drip, drip, drip, drip out of his steak like a broken fauce и