LibGuides: Graphic Medicine: Body Image

Body Image

Body image

A healthy body image means you feel comfortable in your body and you feel good about the way you look. This includes what you think and feel about your appearance and how you judge your own self-worth. A negative body image can put you at higher risk of certain mental health conditions, such as eating disorders and depression. (Office on Women's Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

Eating Disorders

What are Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are serious but treatable mental and physical illnesses that can affect people of all genders, ages, races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, body shapes, and weights. In the United States, 28.8 million Americans will suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lives.

While no one knows for sure what causes eating disorders, a growing consensus suggests that it is a range of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors. (National Eating Disorders Association)

Graphic Novels about Body Image

What Makes Girls Sick and Tired by Lucile de Pesloüan; Geneviève Darling (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781772600964
Publication Date: 2019-03-04
"What Makes Girls Sick and Tired is a feminist manifesto that denounces the discrimination against and unfairness felt by women from childhood to adulthood. The graphic novel, illustrated in a strikingly minimalist style with images of girls with varied body types and personalities, invites teenagers to question the sexism that surrounds us, in ways that are obvious and hidden, simple and complex."-- Provided by publisher
Meat and Bone by Kat Verhoeven
Call Number: PN6733.V47 M43 2019
ISBN: 9781772620337
Publication Date: 2019-05-28
"The story, which takes place in Toronto and originally appeared as a popular webcomic, focuses on the lives of three roommates and their interpersonal struggles. While one roommate is slowly wrestling with severe body image issues, another is trying to figure out how to navigate her new polyamorous relationships--without hurting any of her partners. Meanwhile, the third roommate practically moves into the gym, where's she's quietly working through her own problems and those of her friends."-- Provided by publisher
Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (Illustrator)
Call Number: PZ7.7.B77 A5 2011
ISBN: 9781596435520
Publication Date: 2011-06-07
"Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend wasn't one of them. Especially not a new friend who's been dead for a century. Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya's normal life might actually be worse. She's embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she's pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend--even a dead one--is just what she needs. But Anya's new BFF isn't kidding about the 'forever' part .." (worldcat)
Girl Stories by Lauren R. Weinstein
Call Number: PN6727.W416 G57 2006
ISBN: 9780805078633
Publication Date: 2006-04-18
"A collection of comics about the ins and outs of being a girl on the verge of adolescence." (IUCAT)
Hellbound Lifestyle by Kaeleigh Forsyth; Alabaster Pizzo (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN6727.F68 H48 2016
ISBN: 9781940398563
Publication Date: 2016-05-25
"Kaeleigh Forsyth wryly observed and recorded the weird moments of her life in private notes on her phone, and now her friend Alabaster Pizzo has illustrated these secret thoughts in hilarious detail." (amazon)

Graphic Novels about Eating Disorders

Blossoms and Bones by Kim Krans
Call Number: PN6727.K686 Z46 2020
ISBN: 9780062986382
Publication Date: 2020-03-03
"Visionary artist and New York Times bestselling author of The Wild Unknown Kim Krans returns with a decadently illustrated and incredibly raw graphic memoir that chronicles her multi-layered search for truth and recovery from an eating disorder and infertility in the throes of a health and wellness-obsessed culture, touching on the healing potentials of creativity and spirituality"-- Provided by publisher
How I Made It to Eighteen by Tracy White (Illustrator)
Call Number: PZ7.7.W4545 H69 2010
ISBN: 9781596434547
Publication Date: 2010-06-08
"Seventeen-year-old Stacy Black enters a hospital where she battles her ups and downs with her unreliable boyfriend, Eric; her bleak, unrelenting thoughts and her battle with bulimia" (worldcat)
Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green
ISBN: 9781549301094
Publication Date: 2017-10-03
"A graphic memoir of eating disorders, abuse, and recovery. Like most kids, Katie was a picky eater. She’d sit at the table in silent protest, hide uneaten toast in her bedroom, listen to parental threats that she’d have to eat it for breakfast. But in any life, a set of circumstances can collide, and normal behavior can soon shade into something sinister, something deadly.Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawn story of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of a taboo illness, an exposure of those who are so weak that they prey on the weak, and an inspiration to anybody who believes in the human power to endure and to eventually find happiness." (proquest)

Resources for Mental Health

IU Southeast CAPS

(Counseling and Psychological Services)

Our services are available to all students (part or full time) at no fee.

Our counselors are all professionally trained and have specific skills related to work with college students. The Director of Counseling and Psychological Services holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology and is licensed by the state of Indiana as a Health Services Provider. The Counselor/Care Manager is a licensed clinical social worker who provides both mental health counseling and referrals for resource assistance, e.g., food, housing, health care, etc. Our staff also includes master level and doctoral level graduate students from local universities.
Make an appointment

Students may schedule virtual visits with a counselor by calling 812-941-2244 or emailing sepersco@ius.edu.

For students in a mental health crisis, please contact IU Southeast Police Department at 812-941-2400 or the Regional Crisis and Information Line (24 Hours) at 800-221-0446.