Teenage Waistland

About Teenage Waistland

“You all believe that losing one-hundred-plus pounds will solve everything, but it won’t. Something far heavier is weighing on you, and until you deal with that, nothing in your lives will be right.”
 –Betsy Glass, PhD, at first weekly group counseling session for ten severely obese teens admitted into exclusive weight-loss surgery trial
 
Patient #1: Female, age 16, 5’4″, 288 lbs.

• Thrust into size-zero suburban hell by remarried liposuctioned mom. Hates new school and skinny boy-toy stepsister.
• Body size exceeded only by her big mouth.

• All-star football player, but if he gets “girl surgery,” as his dad calls it, he’ll probably get benched.
• Has moobies—male boobies. Forget about losing his V-card—he’s never even been kissed.

• Morbidly obese and morbid, living alone with severely depressed mother who won’t leave her bed.
• Best and only friend is another patient, whose dark secret threatens everything Patient #3 believes about life.