Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body

This may be one of the most life-changing books you will ever read. You may think you know what's in the heads of girls everywhere, but Martin puts our thoughts and our fears into words. She writes what so many of us are afraid to admit but so desperately want to hear. Her work is amazing and inspirational for women everywhere. She will make you want to love yourself again.

Martin brings an intelligent, spot-on, and completely fresh analysis to the issues of eating disorders/disordered eating, body image, and self-esteem in young women. She seamlessly weaves true stories of women and girls she personally knows and/or met and interviewed for the purpose of writing the book with facts, statistics, and quotes from tons of other sources. Her research is meticulous, and the personal stories are interesting and compelling. Martin's writing is also fantastic. I tore through this nonfiction book faster than I can read a lot of fiction - her writing flowed so well and the content was incredibly fascinating. Also, if you read other reviews of the book, not everyone agrees with me about how fantastic it is. So, yeah, the book resonated with me and with my personal experiences. A lot. I do not have an eating disorder, but I have plenty of experience with disordered eating, feeling like crap about oneself, comparing oneself to others constantly, etc. Personally and otherwise. So I get it. I get what the book is saying and I truly related to the stories within it. That is most likely a large part of why I liked it so much. But regardless of your personal experiences, I believe Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a terrific read. I absolutely, 100% cannot recommend this book enough. If you are female, and/or if you have a daughter, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters is a MUST-read. Truly. This was one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time.

This book feels really personal, as though you're having an intimate conversation. The research is also top notch. It's a great book to read if you are a woman and have ever been insecure about your body, especially if you are under 30. While the author and I would have run in different social circles in school, I really identified with the issues facing young women today.

I found that Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters spoke to me, directly. There are those deep pockets in our lives and experiences that remain hidden and may not even come out to best friends or we may not even be aware of ourselves. This book brought those out for me. The narrative is very personal and draws on hundreds of interviews as well as personal anecdotes, which makes the book very easy to read and very enjoyable. It also makes one feel a part of a larger community. There ARE thousands of people thinking constantly about weight and body image, and in this book we intimately meet several of them. My favorite chapter was on the father-daughter experience and how that may influence our body image. I never thought of, or read about, that connection before. I found the chapter absolutely insightful. It is a must read for fathers or future fathers.