“It’s not Your Illness” by Cara, is about a teenage boy who battles the mental illness of anorexia. People slowly start to realize that this boys 80 mile bikes rides and only having an apple after isn’t normal. His sister didn’t think she was one of her parents priorities, when her brother got out of the hospital. “Putting on weight scared him, and from then on he refused to eat, because gaining weight meant he had failed the demands that anorexia were making on him.” This is a very powerful and sad quote from Cara. This statement is very sad because it’s probably scary when your own brother won’t eat anything because he’s scared to gain weight.
I think that this piece of writing speaks to a lot of people who struggle with their own body image. I disagree with Cara’s friends, because a few of them said she was lucky, because she landed two lead roles in a dance show. When at home she was anything but lucky, her brother was killing himself. In this piece, I think that Cara expresses her feelings that she’s been holding back for years. When people at Cara’s school complained and there was really no problem, I think Cara took serious offense to this, because her brother had a real problem. I think that being anorexic is trying to make yourself something that you’re not. It must be a hard life.