Thanks to airbrushed celebrities and a cultural preoccupation with thinness, many teen girls have issues with their own bodies.  And it’s not just overweight girls who long to be skinnier.  Girls of normal weight and even those who are underweight often have difficulty seeing themselves the way they really are.  Scientists have a name for what is going on the minds of these non-overweight girls who view themselves as fat:  Body image distortion.

Unlike body image dissatisfaction, where a girl sees her body the way it really is and finds it unattractive, a girl suffering from body image distortion falsely interprets what she sees in the mirror.  Janet M. Liechty, a professor of social work and of medicine at University of Illinois, says her research has revealed that these girls are more likely to resort to potentially harmful tactics to lose weight than those who have a more realistic view of their bodies.

“A distorted view of one’s weight status makes one more vulnerable to using unsafe weight-loss behaviors. The key is to cultivate a positive, realistic, and appreciative relationship with your body regardless of your weight, then get support to develop eating and activity habits that balance input and output, and that you can live with for long time.”

That support, says Liechty, is often absent for a normal-weight girl in a society that is currently focused on the childhood obesity epidemic.  But without early detection of body image distortion, an otherwise healthy girl is at risk of starting down that dangerous path of extreme dieting that often ends with an eating disorder.

When I look back at photos of myself as a teen, I realize that I was much thinner than I felt at the time.  And while I did embark upon an extreme diet or two back then, I was fortunate enough to avoid devloping an eating disorder.  Another thing I never did?  Not once did I ever have a discussion about how I felt about my body with my mother.  And because I looked perfectly healthy to her, she never thought to ask.  Cleary body image, weight and healthy eating are topics we should all be discussing with our daughters, regardless of what size they wear.

Image: Charlotte Astrid/Flickr

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