"When I was 15, I grew nine inches in nine months. My bones ached at night. I grew out of my clothes at a rapid clip, exposing skinny ankles beneath the bottom of my blue jeans. I went from being average height to towering over everyone in my class. I had been uncomfortable in my own skin even before that."
"I was divorced, and my two children were with their father at his home in Europe for the summer. I worked at a demanding job, and rarely took vacations, but a friend persuaded me to drive with him from my home in Seattle to the Oregon Country Fair. We were recovering alcoholics, and I wasn't sure about attending a three-day music fair in the middle of nowhere, but I figured we would be fine together — he had been sober longer than I had."
At 15, rapid growth caused physical discomfort and visible changes that intensified lifelong body unease. Growing up in the late 1970s created pressure because body shape felt unfashionable, and dieting began in the teenage years. The conviction that the body was faulty persisted into adulthood. In the early 30s, after a divorce and while parenting two children who spent a summer abroad, a friend convinced a recovering pair to drive to the Oregon Country Fair. Time spent camping with acrobats and circus performers in the forest led to loosened shoulders, deeper bodily connection, and renewed sensory pleasure in food.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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