Daphne is a confident, intelligent 20-year-old college student, blessed with beautiful curves. After winning a campus singing competition she was recruited to join a sorority.
Everything seemed great at first. Daphne noticed for a quick moment that many of the girls sort of looked like Barbie dolls, and laughed it off because that certainly wasn’t her.
Each rushee was given a nickname; the blonde next to her “angel eyes”. Daphne, with everyone watching her, was given the name “thunder thighs”. Daphne’s stomach sank, she felt so humiliated that she could throw up. She tried to brush it off and decided to keep going for why her “sisters” would be so mean, they were probably just testing her. Once accepted in the sorority, she thought the bullying would end. She endured more torturous hazing, like being forced to drink until she got sick while blindfolded. Walking down the hall she would often hear the older girls repeatedly chant “thunder thighs”.
Hurt, confused and upset, she ran into the bathroom and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She nearly screamed in horror as her thighs appeared magnified as if in a funhouse mirror, too large for her body. She started to cry, she was so “fat”. Her mother must have been lying when she always told her how beautiful and feminine curves were, and being fit doesn’t have to be skinny.
Over the next few months Daphne ate very little so she would look like all the others. At other times she became so hungry that she binged. Her light began to fade, and her confidence was sinking. Sobbing in a fetal position alone in her room while all the other girls were at a party, a fluffy pink ball rolled over to her bedside and began to unravel itself.
The ball turned out to be a monster, not a scary monster rather one with kind blue eyes. She introduced herself as Daisy. Daphne admired Daisy’s beauty. Daisy took Daphne’s hand and slowly walked her over to her full-size mirror.
“I want you to see yourself as how you see me: beautiful”. Holding back tears, Daphne looked up and saw herself as her “sisters” saw her: thunder thighs and unattractive. Daisy then jumped up and tapped her hand on the mirror. The mirror lit up and faded into sparkly dust. The mirror reappeared and Daisy told her to try again. Daphne slowly raised her head to look in the mirror, and she finally saw herself the way she used to; beautiful. With the help of Daisy, she reached out to the Greek Life Advisor who introduced Daphne to the health center and a program on eating disorders.
People who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder have a distorted self-image. They may see themselves as bigger or less attractive than they really are. Daphne left the mean girl sorority, got good nutritional advice from the health and wellness center and began to make more positive choices in friends. She with Daisy at her side found a sorority that encourages healthy lifestyles and embraces the uniqueness of their members.