Fat .Fat. Fat. Focus.
I saw her in Aisle 6. Trying to act nonchalant, I casually peruse boxes of sugar laden cereals that I harbor no intent of purchasing. Twenty-ish, her skin hangs from frail bones hollowed by the haunting of anorexia. With a pursed, worn smile she inspects my legs longingly. Her listless eyes reflect the want and frenzied craze of the ultimate body showdown, endlessly turning on the gramophone in her head.
She's not in the grocery aisle anymore. Transported to the Oscar's red carpet, flashing camera shutters are deafening, but not louder than her voices of self doubt and disgust. I know where she is. I've been to the Hunger Games so often I've earned a season pass.
We're both gazing at each other openly now. I watch her devour a pitiful breath of nutrition-less oxygen with a smirk and a satisfied flip of brittle hair . The games are on . Did she really think I'd believe that a handful of air particles is all she needs to satiate the screaming hunger?
She's a child's scribble to my Picasso. I don't need air.
My eating disorder is better than hers. It has to be. It's all I have left.
So I stop breathing.
In this breathtaking piece, Shonna, 17, addresses the intense and deadly competition that affects those with eating disorders. Ironically, when I first heard about The Hunger Games trilogy, I refused to read the books because I was sure they were about eating disorders. In the midst of our eating disorders, it truly feels like we are competing against ourselves and no one ever wins.
Watch this incredibly inspirational video about combatting the
negative messages that have been thrown our way...