Kate Bosworth: gifted, talented.. eating disordered?
Among many other actresses who have struggled with eating disorders are Scarlett Pomers ["Reba"], Felicity Huffman [“Desperate Housewives”], Jane Fonda and now possibly Kate Bosworth, according to recent pictures with her ribs all too visible [right], and multiple reports of her smoking rather than eating. Supposedly she even had to have her size 0 clothes taken in.
Some of the personal qualities that often accompany high ability and creative talent may encourage behavioral problems such as eating disorders.
Beverly Hills Psychologist Jenn Berman works with a number of celeb entertainment clients, and says in her article Child Performers and Eating Disorders that experts “have found that many of the personality traits which make children great athletes or performers are the very same characteristics which make them more susceptible to eating disorders; the most common being: perfectionism; the desire to please; the ability to ignore pain and exhaustion; obsessiveness and the burning desire to reach their goals.”
In the article Perfectly Skinny, Dr. Michael Strober, director of the Eating Disorders Program at UCLA School of Medicine, says “Perfectionism is present commonly in the backgrounds of persons with anorexia nervosa, suggesting its role as a predisposing personality trait.”
Kate Bosworth has acted in a number of films [top photo from “Superman Returns”] but admitted in 2002 that she had “a hundred insecurities and a hundred fears. My greatest fear is living up to what I expect of myself… my standards are really high, so my fear is that I’ll fail in my own eyes — rather than in anyone else’s.”
A Star magazine [starmagazine.com] story said, “Kate’s been a perfectionist her whole life,” a source says of the star, a skilled equestrian and straight-A student who deferred her entrance to Princeton. Sources say Kate began dwindling in 2003 while playing a drug addict in the drama Wonderland. “People told her she looked fabulous,” says a source. “That’s probably all she needed to get it into her head that skinnier equals prettier!”
Hopefully, Bosworth - and other women - can learn to let their natural beauty and talent shine, and not limit themselves with ideas of body image that are destructive, too skinny and anti-sexy.
Talent Development Resources pages:
eating disorders [page 1 of 3]
eating disorders resources articles books sites
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