camps for overweight children

Abby Ellin draws on her own experiences as an overweight teen to examine the factors that contribute to weight problems in teenagers and the weight loss strategies that work.

Stephanie Klein recounts her experiences battling her weight as a child, including the summer she spent at fat camp, and explains how those experiences shaped every aspect of her life until she was finally able to come to terms with her size.

Stephanie Klein was an eighth grader with a weight problem. Teased by her classmates, reminded by her father that no one likes fat girls, and a witness to her thin mother's compulsive dissatisfaction with her own body, Stephanie's problem was not solved by being sent to "fat camp". She shares her thoughts and feelings of that time in her life with her readers, just as she reveals her mind-set now as a physically fit, and thin, wife and mother.