Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women―and Its Impact on Health and Happiness Hardcover – April 18, 2017

This book was one of my favorites to read. Beauty Sick is written by psychology professor at Northwestern University Renee Engeln. Engeln does a great job of detailing the different types of hard-ships women and young girls face on a daily basis, based on their appearance. Throughout the book, Engeln explains how media, photoshop, critique and comparison of one's appearance and weight to others, can have a disturbing and lasting effect on these young girls and women's health. To gather data, Engeln performed a series of qualitative research, where she was able to interview young girls and women of different ages, cultures and values. Through this, Engeln is able to compare and contrast these women's and young girl's experiences, to have a better understanding of what constant criticism can do to an individual, while educating her audience.Throughout this book, Engeln is able to give the audience an inside view of how women and young girls are objectified on a daily basis through the lens of our society. Not only does Engeln explain how societal pressures can have a detrimental effect on these young girls and women, but she also explains the extremes these young girls and women will go to achieve what is considered the “ideal” body. In addition to that, she also explains how at a young age, young girls are already worried about their weight and appearance. Because of that, Engeln narrows down on how and why this begins at the early years of a girl's life and also takes into account the different factors of how our society and culture is fixated on women’s appearance, instead of what these young girls and women have achieved throughout their lifetime. Although this book shows the negative sides of what the media can do, Engeln also talks about ways of combating ‘beauty sickness’. Through this, she is able to share some points and ideas that can help reduce body shaming and how to learn to love our bodies. By the end of the book, I think Engeln was able to explain each topic in detail as well as educate her audience on what societal pressures can do to a young girl or woman. Although the topics found throughout this book are rarely talked about, I think this book gives the public a leeway to start speaking up about issues like these. In addition to that, I think many of the readers reading this book could relate to one or more of the young girls and women interviewed throughout the book, giving them a sense of security. Because the style of writing in this book is fairly easy to follow along, and I would recommend this book to anyone that may be struggling with their own appearance, whether it be a young girl or woman. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. I was able to relate to many of the interviews, making this book hit home. Although this book does bring up difficult topics, it's time for the public to understand how social media, media and photoshop can have a devastating impact on young girls and women.

Great book. Engeln does a good job of explaining her points and using detailed descriptions of her studies/research to back up her claims. This is a topic that needs to be addressed for all of the young women of the world, and I believe she does a good job of getting the conversation started. She gives you a new way of looking at seemingly innocent comments on appearance that we all make to the women in our lives and she starkly highlights the damage the the obsession with looks and beauty really does on young girls and women. She describes how it truly is a double standard that women are valued so highly for looks, while men are valued for ability, bravery, etc. Society is starting to shift, but still has a long way to go when we still have employers requiring females to wear things like make up and high heels as part of a "uniform" to work.I liked that she used anecdotal stories along with her qualitative research studies to driver her point home. I truly felt for the women in her book who all underwent various degrees of stress and life dissatisfaction due to these issues (even the ones who WERE beautiful by cultural standards.) Well written and an easy read. She is not an over the top feminist by any means, so if you are slightly conservative this book will still teach you a lot about society and gender roles.

This book is both very instructive and useful but I found it a tough read. It focuses on raising awareness of a real social plague, but if you already have that knowledge, the writing style means that it requires motivation to keep going. But it is definitely worth the effort to push through.

This book is self explanatory how woman deal with her life. Are we really FREE?

Every woman or anyone raising a girl should read this book. Since I've read the book I've been remembering so many instances when concern about my appearance overshadowed more important ideas. When my parochial school forbade girls from wearing pants so we weren't allowed to hang on the monkey bars or slide down the sledding hill for fear we'd show our underwear and be "unladylike". Or when I hesitated to apply for a corporate job for fear I wouldn't be able to "dress corporate" enough. The impossible standards stare us in the face on every red carpet, on magazine covers and in anchorwoman chairs on the nightly news. Imagine what we'd attain if we didn't spend all that money and energy attempting to be something different. Dr. Englen's exploration of the topic and true stories make this a very readable book, even an enjoyable one as she provides hope and ideas for doing things differently.

Full disclosure- Renee is a friend and I'm quoted in the book. I started reading Beauty Sick, already knowing a lot about Renee's work, and feeling like I had a pretty good handle on our culture's damaging focus on female attractiveness. But, upon reading, I wound up being completely flabbergasted anyway. The gravity and pervasiveness of beauty sickness is conveyed so clearly in this book that readers will truly be disturbed, angry, and motivated. Renee writes about her research in an incredibly accessible way; the reader empathizes with so many of the women profiled in this book. I had tears at several points, knowing the exact same experience that several women in the book describe. This is a book that every human should read, it has implications across race, gender, ability, and age lines.