Customer Reviews

Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In on Living Large, Losing Weight, and How Parents Can (and Can't) Help

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4 star:		(1)
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This deft blend of memoir, sociology, and sharp cultural observation makes for a fascinating and at times heartbreaking read. Teenage Waistland will appeal to anybody who has ever had a distorted or even just complicated relationship to food, eating, and body image...which is just about everybody I know. Really took me back to the high school cafeteria. The book is well written and moves quickly, with plenty of humor along the way. A five-star read.

Prepare to laugh, cry and cringe --- but also to learn --- as Abby Ellin leads us through the landscape of obese teen life. First, though, a confession: When I volunteered to read this book, I feared that I was facing a hard, long slog through a dry tome packed with scientific studies on how to help an overweight kid drop a few pounds. Instead, I could barely put down this lively read. Ellin keeps a page-turning pace as she skillfully weaves her own story as a heavy, weight-obsessed teenager through the stories of other such adolescents.

Ellin begins with her own family, who courageously support her by not challenging her right to tell the unvarnished truth about the ways in which her home contributed to her weight problems and food fixations. Interestingly, the family's attitudes toward weight resulted in the author's sister becoming anorexic. Even as Ellin grew larger and larger, her sister began dieting by third grade.

Ellin's grandmother was a major influence on her self-image, withholding affections when Ellin gained weight. On visits to Grandma's house in Florida, Grandma weighed Ellin daily. At home, Ellin's mother obsessed over her own weight, restricted her diet and exercised before stepping on the scales each morning. She taped a photo of an obese woman on the refrigerator door. Both grandmother and mother repeatedly drilled into Ellin and her sister the dangers of gaining weight. As a child, Ellin was devastated when her grandmother told her she couldn't come to Florida for a visit at Christmastime unless she lost 15 pounds. The ploy didn't work. Nothing really did, for many long, sad years.

Ellin spent six years at weight-loss camps. She lost weight but also learned more about dysfunctional eating and how to do it (one counselor sneaked Ellin out to buy a cart full of candy and cookies because "Your body's getting used to the diet. You need sugar to give it a jolt."). In describing her fat camp days, she tells us the story of the owners of weight-loss camps, beginning with her visit as an adult with the man who ran the first weight-loss camp Ellin attended. During her visit, she talks with young campers, giving us the first of many insightful conversations with teens seeking to lose weight. What they say about their parents can make a reader weep.

In TEENAGE WAISTLAND, we learn what has helped teenagers lose weight and, (heartbreakingly) more often, what has either not helped them or made them worse. Experts --- from fat camp leaders to directors of weight loss programs to bariatric surgeons, researchers and fat activists (and more) --- represent a variety of attitudes as each discusses the best way to help heavy adolescents. Ellin compassionately presents suggestions to parents on ways to support an obese child, all based on respect.

Although there is not a single solution to such a complicated problem, reading this book is informative and helpful. It is a horrifying and fascinating study in our culture's warped attitude toward food and weight. Even if you don't have a child with weight issues, TEENAGE WAISTLAND is an engrossing read.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

Finally someone had the courage to write a book that is honest, compassionate, sensitive, funny and REAL! Enough with the How To Miracle Diets and Seven Habits of Highly Effective Dieters. We are such a country of lemmings! There is no miracle cure. No one loses weight until they are ready, and it's time we wake up to that fact so we can begin to really try to solve the problem.

This book was extremely helpful to me and my family. As the parent of an overweight child, Abby Ellin's insight as a "former fat kid" is a hands-on "what to do/"what not to do" primer for any parents dealing with these sensitive issues. You're never really sure what to do until you're faced with it head on and Ellin's book showed that it's the sensible approach that makes the most sense. Don't panic; don't over react (as is the most instant impulse). Just act sensibly. Well done!

I work in public health and struggle to find resources that are useful. This is a great book for everyone. There is no magic pill and there is no easy fix - but there are LOTS of ways to make things worse. Until we have changed our social norms, our environment, and the availability and ease to make healthy choices, it's going to be a long, tough road. This book is a great read that describes what it's like to struggle with weight - good for those of us who are lucky and think our 5-8 pound struggle is horrible, as well as those who struggle with real weight challenges and are ready to hear the painful truth of a child's experience. Well done, Abby.

Simply put, Abby Ellin "gets it". She had a childhood relationship with weight, food, and family that stays with her, regardless of what the scale says today. She candidly tells her story, which isn't always a happy one, but it's often hilarious. When it comes to the "fat kid epidemic", the author doesn't claim to have all the answers, but is very willing to explore a variety of solutions. Teenage Waistland is tragic, eye-opening, humorous and true. Once you read the introduction: Fat Kid Blues - you'll be hooked, just like the author is on Hostess cupcakes!

An honest look at America's obsession with weight loss and how it affects the younger generation. The author, a former fat kid and fat camp survivor (though not a parent, as she acknowledges) explores various ways to lose weight from fat camps to nagging to behavior modification and surgery, among others. Sadly, there is no quick fix or even well-planned diet and exercise program that works for all, or even some. Due both to lack of willpower or incentive, and physical factors beyond the dieter's control, often the weight is lost then gained then lost again.

"Teenage Waistland" lets the young subjects speak for themselves. It is a fascinating look at a controversial subject.

I read the first part of this book; not all of it. I was hoping the author had personal experience with staying thin despite having been obese as a child, but this is not the case. The author was never fat; instead, she grew up in a dysfunctional family where she was pressured to be severely underweight. As a teenager, her grandmother forbade her to come on the family trip to Disneyworld unless she could get her weight down to 93 pounds. The grandmother did this even though the author's sister was dangerously anorexic and weighed less than 70 pounds.

This book was not what I expected, but it is well-written and extremely useful as a reminder of just how much kids are punished for not being thin "enough".

Why anyone would judge a book by its cover--literally--and be so obnoxious about it is beyond me. Obviously, the 'reviewer' did not read the book and has her own issues with body image and appearance. If she had read the book she would know that it is NOT whiny and NOT written by someone in need of therapy. It is sensitive and funny and heartbreaking and introspective and relevant and important and in-depth and caring and just terrific. Amazon should remove the so-called 'review' below from this page--it is hurtful to the kids on the cover and conveys NOTHING about the book. It says more about the 'reviewer' than anything else; she's the one with problems.