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Fit or Fat?
Self-esteem and "Big" Preteens
By Kelly Burgess
The net effect is that perfectly healthy, active children, such as Courtney, are being branded as fat when, in fact, they're merely big kids with big parents who still have a lot of growing to do before they reach their final adult proportions. In the meantime, Courtney is discriminated against in ways that would be completely unacceptable if she were being judged by her appearance for a different reason – such as being a member of a minority race.
A recent study published in the April 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that obese preteens rated their quality of life as low as that of young cancer patients on chemotherapy. While this particular interpretation of the study has been criticized as being cavalier toward cancer patients who are fighting for their lives, the point was merely to illustrate the depths of despair suffered by obese children in our appearance-oriented society. Their perception of their suffering is so severe that only children undergoing chemotherapy came even close in the depth of emotional desolation they feel.
Davidson understands how that can happen. Although Courtney's an excellent athlete and excels in three sports, she's often teased by other children about being fat. Even adults treat her differently because of her size, as if she's too big to sit on mom's lap, get special privileges her thin relatives of the same age get or acting as if she just isn't quite as bright as the other children. In fact, Courtney's a straight-A student.
"If everyone in the United States ate well and became more physically active, we would all be thinner," says Woodward-Lopez. "However, there would still be a great range of weights and body sizes. There would be thin healthy people and heavier healthy people. Some people are just naturally prone to being heavy, just as there are people who it seems can't gain weight no matter what."
