Lori Gottlieb's reasons for anerexia in her biography Stick Figure: "A Diary of My Former Self"

Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self, an autobiography by Lori Gottlieb, tells the story of an average eleven-year-old girl trying to slowly overcome her problem with anorexia. When Lori Gottlieb was growing up in California in the seventies, looks and status were very important and anorexia nervosa was virtually unknown. If it were not for several negative influences in her life, Lori may never have become anorexic. Lori felt tremendous pressure to be …

…bout with anorexia progressively came about due to three negative influences; her friends and boys from school, her mother, and society's outlook in general. Pressure from her friends, her mother's poor examples, and the constant reminder from media all combined to distort Lori's perception until she believed she was overweight. The stress she experienced eventually led her to her anorexia, as it has done to so many other girls and boys all around the world.