This is Amanda Slater. For years she has been caught in a web of lies, left to encounter her emotions on her own. Deep, hurtful thoughts that have changed her life forever. Although she may feel as though she is alone in the battle, many others are along for the ride.
The first thing that strikes you about Amanda Slater is her smile. The smile is not merely welcoming, calming, and charming, but allows people in her presence to feel a sense of ease. It is the kind of smile that makes one believe that nothing possibly could go wrong or has gone wrong in their life. It is the kind of smile that celebrities dream of possessing-one that only the most professional dentists can recreate. It is a smile that Amanda has worked hard to put together-has trained herself-with great care, knowledge, and motive. This smile has become her mask-a way to escape from the brutalities of reality.
This is a story about how hard it is to fit in with the rest of society-how one can become so overwhelmed by their inner thoughts that they feel the need to act upon their urges. It is about the young teenage girl who looks at herself in the mirror, and instead of seeing herself, sees someone entirely different-how something for our existence can become something that we fear the most. It is about the thousands of lives that are lost each year-the lives that could have been saved if not for the ritualistic behaviors that revolve around exercise, weight, and calories.
Who is Amanda Slater? Well, she is that which, at this point in time has become so recognizable in our daily lives. Amanda is a teenage girl fighting for her life at this very moment. A girl that has struggled with anorexia for nearly three years-ever since that all so familiar day when an inner voice told her to change who she truly is. Now, it’s important to know that this addiction was not chosen, rather, it started as a means to become healthy and eventually caught on fire and simply spiraled out of control. And that is why-after months of struggling to find herself again-she decided to seek help from loved ones and well-sought physicians.
It is early in the morning, and Amanda Slater is lying on the thin, white sheets of a hospital bed. The subtle beep of a heart monitor close by fills the room with an almost ere, ghostly-like feeling. Attached and protruding from her frail arms are IVs, which inject an ongoing dose of medicine to keep her small body alive. She is just about to fall asleep once more as the doctor comes in for the diurnal check-up. “You are a very lucky girl,” he says, “you came this close to passing on.” She ignores the remark, not letting herself take in what she doesn’t want to hear. That by depriving herself from nourishment, her bones, her heart, her brain and other organs have slowly began to deteriorate. And, if she continues on the path she has led for so long, she will not survive into her adult years. Her parents, already emotionally scarred from watching the weight of their child fall off her bones, would be faced with the hard truth-a funeral would take place before a wedding ever could.
Of course, what makes Amanda Slater interesting is the fact that she never gives up. Whatever the case, she fights for the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of letting her eating disorder win, she took control before it could ultimately take her life.
