“Fat”. It’s the one word teenage girls love to say but hate to hear. It’s no secret that we host an unhealthy addiction to obsession over weight. You’ve surely heard, or even experienced, the horror stories concerning the measures some girls go to in order to shed those unsightly pounds. Vomiting, starvation, or some bizarre combination of the two are only the tip of the iceberg.


Advertisers tempt us with guarantees of magical pills and 2-week diets that will give us the flat tummy we hunger for. We’re even lured into buying shoes that supposedly give us “better legs and a better butt” (thanks a lot, Reebok). The media joins this frenzy by shamelessly showcasing celebrities with bodies most of us would kill for. I can’t watch a TV show without thinking, even if ever so briefly, 'I wish I was as skinny as her.'


Being a “chunky” girl myself, I am not immune to the false promises shoved into my face each day. I love playing sports, but I also love to eat. Where I live, there are no opportunities to participate in sport teams outside of school. Once the season is over, you’re stuck. Sure, there’s a gym, but once the schoolwork starts piling up, that isn’t such a great option anymore. So what do I do? Fall back on those ridiculous media-generated scams, of course.


Needless to say, that was not a success.


Nowadays, even technology has cleverly taken advantage of teenage girl’s and society’s all-consuming mania over weight loss. Indeed, what I refer to is the monotonic WiiFit. Not only does WiiFit prove useless for its alleged purpose of “exercise”, but it also labels it users in no uncertain terms. I tried it for the first time at a house with a group of my friends. At first, I took it as a lighthearted joke. I eagerly jumped onto the scale and waited impatiently as it ‘measured’ me. Immediately following this, I was told that I was in grave danger of being overweight.


Nonetheless, I kept my cheery smile on. As the WiiFit blubbered on about its tendency to disregard the fact some people have sturdier builds, I told myself that all of it was a bunch of hooey. Besides, I wasn’t that much heavier than one of my friends, at least, so we would both be able to laugh about our “danger” soon enough.


Guess what? One by one, my friends climbed onto the WiiFit scale, and one by one they were proclaimed to have a perfectly healthy weight. I couldn’t believe it. Naturally, I cheered and laughed with them, but I also began to feel even more self-conscious than I ever had. It didn’t help that they also let the WiiFit weigh them, and...well, let’s just say that I was a good deal chubbier than the heaviest one.


I didn’t forget to take into account the inaccuracy of the WiiFit, yet a pit formed in my stomach that never quite went away. I found myself asking why I cared so much about being thin, and the answer was obvious. All I wanted was to be like the women in the weight loss ads, the glamorous celebrities on the red carpet, or merely my own friends. What I didn’t want to be was myself, and that was absolutely wrong.



Today’s beauty is thin, alluring, and proudly wears a skimpy bikini; how many of us can say the same about ourselves? No one is completely happy with their body. Skinny girls yearn to have curves; plump ones desire a slimmer figure. Tall girls want to shrink, while short girls wish they would shoot up like weeds. Blondes change to brunettes in a snap, and brunettes turn blonde just as fast. It’s disgusting how the media and seemingly harmless games can make us feel so bad about ourselves in a matter of seconds. I wonder if there will ever be a day when “fat” is just another word that isn’t so important in life; a word way behind “family,” “friends,” “love”....and “food.”