‘Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies’ by Erin Dionne is an interesting, poignant read. It captures the essence of self-esteem issues and how mean girls (and boys) can enhance the pressure one feels, even if they don’t mind how they look on their own.
Celeste Harris is a young girl in middle school, struggling to keep her head above water when it comes to dealing with her weight. She never used to mind how she looked, but Lively Carson, resident mean girl, has been making more and more snide comments, causing her to feel hurt. This is only exacerbated by the fact that Lively has befriended Sandra, Celeste’s best friend. Sandra has started making comments herself. Though they are not as mean as Lively’s, Sandra’s sting even more, because she never used to give in to the bullying mentality that Celeste has had to deal with from the other students at her school.
When Celeste’s aunt enters her in a plus-sized teen modeling contest, Celeste is anything but thrilled. She makes plans to try to get out of the competition altogether, or at least to throw it if her mother forces her to go through with it. Yet, as time goes on, she finds that she’s not as upset about it as she thought she’d be. With the help of her gym class’ nutrition unit, she also finds herself watching her weight more and more, and this brings her more confidence than she ever remembers having. This confidence brings her strength as she finds Lively in an embarrassing situation. Knowing she has something to hold over Lively’s head, she learns that she is more than capable of standing up for herself, to Lively, to Sandra, and to anyone else who stands in her way.
Dionne has captured an emotional time in a young girl’s life with sensitivity. Watching Celeste wade through the troubles of middle school and her own self-esteem issues in the Miss HuskyPeach pageant is eye-opening and teaches that sometimes confidence in oneself is more important than whatever others may think and whatever the outcome may be.
You can find ‘Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies’ by Erin Dionne here.