introduction
The biggest project this semester was the documentary unit. We were asked to portray a person, group or topic. First we brainstormed a topic in English. I knew I wanted to do something meaningful but I had no idea where to start. My mom told me to write what I know and maybe talk about my eating disorder. I originally wanted to talk about the internet’s effects on younger generations but I focused my research after my first interview to talk about Diet Culture as a whole. I really wanted to break the cycle of kids constantly being exposed to the internet and developing unhealthy behaviors. We wrote a research paper which was the text in the book I designed.
design
In design we created a book using text from our English essays, graphic design elements created in Illustrator and photographs edited in Photoshop. It was extremely time consuming but with the amount of work I put into it, I ended up feeling very proud and accomplished with the final product.
progress screenshots
final book
interviewee Bios
Sarah Kimm
Sarah has been an associate marriage and family therapist for four years. She pivoted her career after realizing how much she could have been helped by therapy when she was younger. Sarah has always been a curious person and wanted to understand one on one relationships with people; which is why she decided to become a therapist. She works closely with teenagers with eating disorders and co runs a body image group for adolescents to share their feelings in a space where there are like minded individuals.
jehan Sandhu
Jehan is a junior at Mountain View High. She is in Slam magazine, Key Club and was recently student of the month. She loves spending time with her friends and going on walks. She works as a dog walker because of her love of dogs and exercise. She has been struggling with an eating disorder for the last year and a half and is now on the path to recovery. I interviewed her for her experience directly having an eating disorder. I wanted to shed light on how people with eating disorders can be impacted.
reflection
This project taught me a lot about time management, organization and planning. I am very grateful that I got to do this and work on a topic that is extremely important to me.
Thank you
This book is dedicated to my therapist, Sarah Kimm, for inspiring me to write this book and giving me courage throughout the process. I could not have done this without you.
Thank you to Ms. P for constantly pushing me to do my best in this project. Your honesty is always appreciative.
Eva D’Antonio: thank you for all of the late night calls that helped me finish this project and for being my model.