Good Girls Don't Get Fat

“If you’re wondering whether you should be the one to tell your daughter that she is ‘getting fat,’ let me tell you now: DON’T. Take a good look through this book and you will see who has already beaten you to it.” —from Good Girls Don’t Get Fat

Fat bashing in all its chilling forms—jokes, ostracizing, food police, teacher bias, family sneak attacks—is one of society’s last acceptable forms of prejudice. Based on Dr. Robyn Silverman’s groundbreaking research at Tufts University, as well as her workshops and interviews with hundreds of young women, Good Girls Don’t Get Fat examines the heartbreaking abuse and exposes its most insidious culprit: girls themselves. Ask any girl to word-associate fat, and she’ll give you a deplorable list of insults: ugly, lazy, stupid, unpopular and, of course, bad. Do the same with the word thin, and you’ll get its desirable opposites: beautiful, successful, smart, wellliked and good. And when girls of any size believe that fat is bad, they internalize that message and think, “If I’m fat, I must be bad, too,” and they’ll do whatever they can to be “good”: binging, starving, drugs, laxatives and other self-destructive behaviors.

Filled with the searingly honest voices of the girls themselves, this important book:
- Decodes the ripple effects of actions that corrupt our girls—and provides tools to help stop them
- Shines light on the positive influence of women who embrace body types of any size—and explains how to model the right behavior
- Shows how girls, whatever their size, can own their strengths, trust their power and accomplish amazing things

ROBYN J. A. SILVERMAN, PhD, is a leading expert in body and self-esteem development who
appears regularly on national television and radio, including The Tyra Banks Show, Fox & Friends and
NPR. Dr. Silverman received her PhD from Tufts University, where she conducted the research that led
to this book. An award-winning columnist and writer, she lives in New Jersey with her husband and
daughter. Visit her Web site at www.DrRobynSilverman.com and her blogs, www.DrRobynsBlog.com
and www.BodyImageBlog.com.