The Challenge of Maintaining Good Body Image as We Age

My 11-year-old daughter is hurtling toward puberty at full force. Haley has the lovely body of an athletic preteen, all long coltish legs and perfectly smooth skin. She’s a swimmer and on warm days, rides her bike to the pool in nothing more than her suit and flip-flops, oblivious to any worries about cellulite (she has none) or how her body looks in her swimsuit (perfect).

I want her obliviousness to last, yet I know it likely will not. I, like nearly all women, have never been completely at ease with my body. I struggled with an eating disorder for a decade that was spurred by my desire to transform my utilitarian, sturdy body into something wispy and ethereal, like the elfin looks of Winona Ryder or the blonde singer from ‘Til Tuesday. I wanted to be so skinny my jeans would hang off my body, have barely-there boobs that didn’t need a bra, and hips bones that hurt. Instead I developed bulimia and ate my way up to nearly 200 pounds, willfully blind to the fact that I was getting fatter and fatter.