Dimensions
136 x 209 x 18mm
For a girl growing up in Beverly Hills in the late 1970s, the motto "You can never be too rich or too thin" is writ large. Precocious Lori learns her lessons well, so when she's told that "real women don't eat dessert" and "no one could ever like a girl who has thunder thighs", she decides to become a paragon of dieting. Soon Lori has become the "stick figure" she's longed to resemble. But then what? This book takes the reader on a gripping journey, as Lori struggles to reclaim both her body and her spirit.
In creating this book, Gottlieb revisited the diary kept by her 11-year-old self, unearthing the social pressures, parental expectations and images of bodily perfection that engendered in her the desire to be "the thinnest girl at school, or maybe even the thinnest 11-year-old on the planet". The story resonates with both wry humour and compelling honesty: "Mom and I usually don't like the same movies. For example, she didn't like my favourite movie, 'Star Wars', probably because no one goes shopping."
With an edgy wit and keenly observant eye, the book delivers an engrossing glimpse into the mind of a girl in transition to adulthood. This raw, no-holds-barred account is a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of living up to society's expectations.
