Physical Health, Brain Development, and Substance Use

Print Resources

Some books in the CHS Library for further exploration:

Beauty Sick: How the cultural obsession with appearance hurts girls and women by Renee Engeln, PhD

Reveals the consequences of America's cultural obsession with appearance, and the impact media campaigns have on girls' and women's emotional, financial, and physical health.

Hunger by Roxanne Gay

Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health...In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twenties...Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn't yet been told but needs to be.  

Dreamland by Sam Quinones

Quinones explains how the rise of the prescription drug OxyContin, a miraculous and extremely addictive painkiller pushed by pharmaceutical companies, paralleled the massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel.  

There's also lots of fiction that explores themes such as body image and body positivity as well as substance use.  Here are a few to get you started:

Unretouchable by Sofia Szamosi (Fiction - graphic novel)

Olive is spending the summer before art school at a coveted internship, helping one of the fashion industry's elite digital-imaging specialists. After a glamourous New York photoshoot, she learns that taking pictures is only the first step. She discovers the "violent verbs" (cut, crop, slice, lasso) of image retouching software and the secrets behind "virtual models." Soon Olive is fixating on her own appearance and pondering the ethics of her work behind the scenes...Unretouchable is a window into the little-known, hugely influential world of fashion photography and a tribute to self-acceptance. 

The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves

Obsessed with the idea that he is not muscular enough and tired of being bullied, David, age seventeen, begins spending all his time at a nearby gym full of bodybuilders where he's introduced to steroids. But David's pursuit of his ideal body at all costs may end up costing him everything.

Starfish by Lisa Fipps

"Bullied and shamed her whole life for being fat, twelve-year-old Ellie finally gains the confidence to stand up for herself, with the help of some wonderful new allies"--OCLC.