I-Search

Anorexia I-Search RCG Annice Wyatt Picking a topic for my action project did take some thought. I knew I wanted to do something related to Gender because I found Gender the most interesting topic in RCG over the course of the year. Seeing Emma and Hannah’s presentation on Anorexia and Bulimia was to me, the most interesting presentation out of everyone else’s. The main reason why I enjoyed it so much was because it scared me the most, and I can relate to it more. Being a 13 year-old girl, and having the media shown to me every time I turn the TV on or go on the Internet I’m exposed to fake, skinny, perfect people who make us girls feel that we have to look like that. If you look at me, of course you wouldn’t think that I’m the type of girl who would ever want to turn myself into something like that or worry about how I look. I guess every girl has to deal with this type of stuff and they pay very close attention to their body shape and their weight. Even though I know that there is an illness for this I still have the devil in the back of my head telling me that I’m over weight. But, it’s not just because of Hannah and Emma’s project that got me interested in Anorexia but also I know someone who had it. Olivia is her name. She’s 15 years old now, and struggled through Anorexia when she was 13 and 14. Even though she tells me that she doesn’t have it anymore she still has the mind of it. She comments on how she looks fat and ugly in every conversation I have with her and even though I have told her over and over again that she isn’t any of those things she as well has the devil in the back of her head telling her that she’s all of those things. My main goal for me at this point is when ever I talk to her, to make her smile because she has gone through a lot in her life, including Anorexia and she has been my inspiration for choosing this topic. When I was researching, the thing that I wanted to find out the most wasn’t the basic facts of Anorexia but to know people’s stories of having Anorexia and how it changed their life and how they fight through it, if they did. Something that I really had trouble with was actually getting the action part started for the project. I was so focused on the stories and websites about Anorexia, it took Me awhile to actually start making my PSA.

Before researching it, and doing my project, the thing that I knew was what it is. Truthfully, that’s about it. I didn’t know how it really affects the human brain and how they can be stuck with it forever and I also didn’t know that Anorexia happens to a lot of teenage girls, like myself. I first read over all facts about Anorexia and then I started watching videos and documentaries of girls with it and their stories with struggling with the illness. After doing this, I got all the clips and pictures I needed for my PSA and put them all on a folder on my computer so when I’m ready to make the movie on iMovie I will have everything together in one place. After two days of having all my information all together, I started putting different clips together to figure out what song would go well with the PSA. Once I started the Movie, I couldn’t stop. I stayed up till 11:00 pm working on it and finished it feeling confident about my work. After doing this project, I’m quite scared. For my friends, family, and myself. This illness can happen to anyone and it can happen by someone calling you “fat”. It’s surprising how one single word can affect someone so much and how he or she might be taking one’s life from him or her. As for Olivia, having to hear her stories make my eyes water. Having to hear my friend talk about what she struggled through and then having other conflicts to go with it makes me feel even worse. I hope that she won’t always be the way she is, being negative about her self but I don’t want to see her being hurt again. As for myself, I hope I don’t ever get pulled into the the depression and the experience of anorexia, and I hopefully will take the information I got from doing this project and tell it to my children and so they can give awareness to their kids and many generations to come.