cover image The Woman in the Mirror: How to Stop Confusing What You Look Like with Who You Are

The Woman in the Mirror: How to Stop Confusing What You Look Like with Who You Are

Cynthia M. Bulik. Walker, $16 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-8027-1999-7

An alarming number of American females don’t like what they see in the mirror, writes Bulik: by the time girls are ready for high school, half of them hate their weight and shape—and their self-esteem has taken a precipitous dive. Bulik, a psychologist and eating disorders specialist at the University of North Carolina (Crave: Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop) paints a disturbing picture of the distorted lens through which many American women, from girlhood to old age, view their bodies. She also offers a guide to untangling the mess, based on controlling negative self-talk. With a section devoted to each part of the life cycle, Bulik includes examples of struggles women can identify with. For example, for college-age women, there’s a plan for healthy eating, and a graph to help young women become aware of the events (“mean-girl behavior”) and situations that foster negative self-esteem. Bulik encourages such inventories to “capture your thoughts” and become “a critical observer of your own thinking and... behavior.” It’s a pain-for-gain challenge to self-awareness that may be the only hope we have to change a troubling trend. Agent: Richard Curtis. (Jan.)