Richa Sharma

The last time I met my younger sister, she was checking out several diet sites. I remember one of the lines, “Hint: you need to eat more than three times a day to loose weight, but we will show you the details later.”

I just could not believe a teenager searching for a diet site and saving everything she finds. It is time for her to eat as much as she can and run as fast as she can. And there she was missing out the best things as regards to being a teenager. It does make a lot of difference, the kind of company you keep I thought. My friends and me, we were just about doing the normal things and being impish. We were never concerned about looking like the tall, skinny models walking expressionless.

When I asked her she told me how important it was to have a flat belly and a cheekbone. Wow! Could do something about the belly but the cheekbone? She told me to squeeze my cheeks for a slimmer look! I could not do it for more than five seconds. She told me that it was absolutely necessary to be “skinny” in order to be in vogue. I wonder if fashion magazines and the growing competition among teenagers to look “identical” to foreign artists are to blame for it. The blooming beauty/fashion competitions perhaps, but well, we know the situation.

Nepal falls under the poverty line and many people starve to death every year. And I hear about girls starving themselves, yes, its called anorexia. When someone eats very less and represses the hunger its anorexia and it is considered a very serious disease in Europe and America. Another one is called bulimia; when a person makes herself/himself throw up immediately after eating.

Most of the girls today are worried about their appearances, comparing themselves to the “beautiful” ones and checking whether they fit in the other girls’ category or not. What has happened to the self-esteem beyond how you look? Being concerned about how much should you eat when you are with friends should not bother you. The Hollywood ramps and the glamorised cover girls have plagued Nepal. Healthy living, positive thinking and enjoying a full meal has become a problem. For me, I still believe in giving myself positive pointer with a cone of nutty-nuts. You should try it sometimes too.