Beauty Sick

How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women

By: Renee Engeln

Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt

An award-winning Northwestern University psychology professor reveals how the cultural obsession with women's appearance is an epidemic that harms women's ability to get ahead and to live happy, meaningful lives, in this powerful, eye-opening work in the vein of Naomi Wolf, Peggy Orenstein, and Sheryl Sandberg.

Today's young women face a bewildering set of contradictions when it comes to beauty. They don't want to be Barbie dolls but, like generations of women before them, are told they must look like them. They're angry about the media's treatment of women but hungrily consume the very outlets that belittle them. They mock modern culture's absurd beauty ideal and make videos exposing Photoshopping tricks but feel pressured to emulate the same images they criticize by posing with a "skinny arm". They understand that what they see isn't real but still download apps to airbrush their selfies. Yet these same young women are fierce fighters for the issues they care about. They are ready to fight back against their beauty-sick culture and create a different world for themselves, but they need a way forward.

In Beauty Sick, Dr. Renee Engeln, whose TEDx talk on beauty sickness has received more than 250,000 views, reveals the shocking consequences of our obsession with girls' appearance on their emotional and physical health and their wallets and ambitions, including depression, eating disorders, disruptions in cognitive processing, and lost money and time. Combining scientific studies with the voices of real women of all ages, she makes clear that to truly fulfill their potential, we must break free from cultural forces that feed destructive desires, attitudes, and words - from fat-shaming to denigrating commentary about other women. She provides inspiration and workable solutions to help girls and women overcome negative attitudes and embrace their whole selves, to transform their lives, claim the futures they deserve, and, ultimately, change their world.

©2017 Renee Engeln (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Highly Recommend

It's easy to succumb to beauty culture. This book acknowledges that and turns it around.

everyone should read this book!

We all need to take steps to help women and girls take the focus off their appearance so they can focus on making positive impacts in this world!

Life changing!

This should be required reading for every woman in America. We can fight back together and heal our culture's beauty sickness!

Excellent content

The whole book is compelling. The last 20-30 minutes are really practical advice to counteract beauty sickness in yourself, your home, and the world around you. The narrator was very difficult for me to listen to. The voices and accents were extremely distracting and sometimes it felt like she hadn’t pre-read anything because she emphasized strange words in sentences or misinterpreted the meaning of a quote.

It’s about one of those things women already know but don’t understand.

Explained beautifully. Food for the soul. I loved it. This should be thought in school.

A must read for all genders

The reading was well paced, in a voice that went well with the book. The book itself is a must read for anyone 10+, but especially for girls and women. Reading this book will be a condition for my daughter before getting a smartphone. I’m so grateful that this book exists.

Must read for anyone

Really helps you understand how much effort we put to keep up with the beauty standards of society and how this impacts our time, our physical, emotional and finantial health. It really opened my eyes at how much of what we do is influenced by companies that profit on us and how much of a toll it takes on our lives.

definitely learned some things

So much in here was relatable, and much more was informative! I think many people would benefit from this read. personally, i think I'll have to read it. again and again just to keep the knowledge fresh in my mind and in practice.

also, Performance was great with smooth transitions and great story telling in the moments of recounted conversations.

feel more free and brave

Good book! I always felt uncomfortable but can’t tell why. No I know it’s not my fault. It’s the sick culture. The book let me feel relieved and brave!

Don’t like what you see in the mirror?

This book will make you look at yourself with love and gratitude. An absolute must-read for every woman, no matter the age. I wish it had been around when I was a teen.