Someone, please help these girls

Also in last week's Sunday Times, two scary articles: 'Too Thin Teens' and 'Hey! Big Spender'.

Too Thin Teens

Not surprisingly, the number of teens with anorexia nervosa has risen. Boys were not mentioned much in the article but I understand that there are now also more boys with this condition.

Peer pressure seems to be really overwhelming these days. One of the girls talked about how everyone else was so thin and how thin girls were popular. In fact, the classmates competed to see who would be the thinnest of all. Doctors are also concerned because more girls see having anorexia as 'hip'. How and when did life in a girls' school become this way?

Even while in hospital for treatment, the girls resist recovery, outdoing one another in not putting any weight back on, hiding or getting rid of the food they are supposed to eat, exercising secretly in the toilet, etc.

Hey! Big Spender

According to this article, teenage girls are spending 'hundreds of dollars' every month on expensive make-up, and facial and beauty treatment.

Some examples:

eA salon has girls as young as 14 years signing up for $300 packages

eOne 18-year-old spends more than $300 on clothes from labels such as Chanel and Lanvin

eOne 18-year-old spends more time washing her face (using 5 different cleansers) than bathing. Said she, 'I'm late for school every day, but I can't help it. I cannot sacrifice my beauty regimen just because I'm late for school, you know?'

eTeens are buying expensive facial and beauty products such as those from dermatologists' clinics and high-end brands like Christian Dior. One girl got her mum to get her $1,200 worth of 'branded' make-up. Well, Christian Dior make-up has such lovely packaging (see below) but the prices are so prohibitive...

My, how values have changed. It's no crime, of course, to want to look pretty and slim - who doesn't want to? - but do they need to go to such lengths?

Anyway, I have a question. How is it possible for a girl's not eating adequately and losing too much weight to escape the notice of the adults around her? It's scarily like how girls can go through pregnancy without anyone noticing anything unusual.

Comments

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the

When the best man doesn't win

Speaking of 'sway' spurned lovers, the latest one I've come across is in Love Revolution ( only 12 episodes!), a J show I recently watched. Heroine of the story is pretty, 30-ish Smart Doctor, who is dying to fall in love and get married. She meets Aspiring Actor and Broadcast Journalist (right). She falls for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks. It's obvious from the start (to the audience but not to her) that Aspiring Actor is nuts about her. But... she has fallen for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks already. No doubt, Smart Doctor and Broadcast Journalist must be given credit for their love that stands the tests of time, separation and misunderstanding, but the one who loves most in the show is undoubtedly Mr Aspiring Actor. What he does/does not do because of his undying love for Smart Doctor: Y does not pursue her at first because he is still struggling to survive in this small-time drama group and he knows he doesn't have much to offer Y resp

my ajumma notes

Search This Blog