How Are We Perfect?

Perfect: Why do people call other people perfect? Why do they think that people have perfect lives? Because they think that their life is so bad, that they think how could this person, who seems to be the definition of perfect, have tough spots in life? They might seem perfect on the outside, but people’s loved ones might have passed away, or their parents might be divorcing, or their family might be having financial problems. All of this stress can be released in many different ways. For some people, this is released in bad ways that can hurt themselves. In the book Perfect, by Natasha Friend, a girl’s anger about her father’s death is swept away by her making herself become bulimic.

The South Carolina Department of Mental Health estimates that about 8 million Americans are compulsive eaters. One million of those people are men, and 7 million are women. However, the National Eating Disorder Association’s statistics are even higher. They say that 10 million women in the US have eating disorders. Even so, that is a huge amount of just women for just one country to have these kinds of problems. In Perfect, one of those millions of females is Isabelle Lee. The cause of it was her father’s death, and on top of that, an irritable sister and a secluded mother. Her life is hard, and she copes with it by stuffing herself with food, which makes her feel comfortable, then making herself sick so she doesn’t gain the calories. Though mostly people in high school and up have Bulimia, Isabelle is one of the many middle-schoolers that has this problem.

At every school, there seems to be that one person that give the impression that they have the perfect life. This person may have a good life where they only have little friend issue or family problem, but no one is perfect, including Isabelle. The people that have a lot of family problems don’t need to bully anyone in any way, but they might hurt themselves in one or maybe more of the possible ways that there is. There are, in fact, more people in the world that are being bullied than people who have bulimia. This is because, some of those people are being bullied which causes them to be bulimic. This proves that nobody is perfect. Life throws a lot at a person, from the moment they are born, to their last breath. Which, in some cases, might not be a very long time. These things included health issues, learning disabilities, and for older kids, friend problems plus many more. Being perfect doesn’t mean to have the best clothes, be the smartest, perfect hair, strong, funny, or anything else. Being perfect means being who you are, and nobody can change that no matter how hard they try.

In the book, Isabelle’s sister tattles on her for “puking her guts out.” Her mom puts Isabelle in a group that helps people with their self-perspective problems. There, she learns how she can cope with her friend dilemmas, family issues, and, she finds out, herself. She does this by making a new friend in the group. One of the people who walk in the door is the most popular girl in school, Ashley Barnum. She seems to be the most perfect girl with a perfect life, hence the book title: Perfect. But Isabelle soon finds out that her parents are divorcing, and she too has Bulimia because of that. The two become amazing friends, and all the while teaching each other that they can give up their ways of being Bulimic and stay friends to support each other through hard times.

All of the things mentioned in the book are real-world issues. Not just in the US, but people in different countries might do these things, too. This book proves that even though there are some pretty tough spots in life, you can’t expect yourself to be perfect. The author also makes the message clear that when you are having some hard times, there will always be someone there to help you, and closer than you think if you just look.