My Rory

“I keep trying to remind myself that a number on a scale doesn’t make up who I am. My weight shouldn’t control my mind, but it does. I wish everything about this eating disorder would just end, but I fear that in many ways it never will.” Alyssa Biederman’s compelling journey through anorexia began her junior year in high school. From the outside looking in, she appeared to have it all. Raised in an affluent community, Alyssa was involved in both her community and school. She was an honor roll student, on the school newspaper staff and four-year varsity letter winner in tennis. Yet, despite her picture perfect life, this natural beauty was unable to see herself the way others did. What started as a quest to lose a couple pounds soon became a dangerous obsession. Alyssa’s emotional struggle with anorexia is reveled in the personal journal she affectionately refers to as My Rory. Named after the friend she pushed away while battling to find herself, this journal is a heart-wrenching account of the confused inner mind of a teenage eating disorder victim. This story is a must read for anyone suffering from an eating disorder and their family and friends wishing to understand and support them. My Rory captures a rare glimpse of the inner feeling and thoughts of both an anorexic and her family as they battle toward recovery.