Elizabeth Patch’s story is simple and touching:
a high school art teacher who struggled with her own eating disorders,
she watched in vain as a favorite student died from anorexia.
Her sketchbooks and journals evolved into an illustrated book,
“More to Love”, an adorably inspiring look at body image and self-esteem.
Elizabeth believes that accepting & respecting one’s body,
no matter what size or shape,
encourages positive choices for a healthier, happier life!
“Women should be measured by the lives we lead,
not by the size we wear!”
Interviews with Elizabeth Patch
PsychCentral.com Weightless blog Part One
PsychCentral.com Weightless blog Part Two
W-WomanGlobally.com
MoreofMetoLove.com
The Fat Girls Guide to Living
Skorch Magazine
FAQ
But Elizabeth, You’re NOT Fat!
How do you create your illustrations?
The Story Behind More to Love
When I was a teenager,
my girlfriends and I spent almost all of our time worrying about our weight.
Every fashion model, every advertisement, all the popular actresses and store mannequins
convinced us that being super-thin was the only way a woman could be attractive.
My friend with natural blonde hair and angelic face was preoccupied with her thighs.
Another friend hid herself in loose baggy clothes to disguise her curvy hourglass shape.
And even though I have a thin “boyish” build, I was also convinced that I was horribly overweight.
No matter what restrictive (and ridiculous) diets we tried, it seemed that we couldn’t become thin enough.
We were young and pretty and we hated ourselves!
In my late 20’s, I became a single mother with two toddlers,
absolutely struggling to survive financially.
My life consisted of cleaning two or more houses during the day,
and taking as many as 15 college credits per semester at night.
I was often too exhausted, or overwhelmed, to eat at all.
I was too busy, and too broke, to worry about my “diet.”
I lost so much weight that I become almost skeletal.
I was over-stressed, sickly and dangerously underweight,
but the most unbelievable thing began to happen:
Total strangers complimented me on my weight!
“You’re so lucky to be so thin!” “I wish I knew your secret!”
Something was very wrong with this picture…
I finished college and became a high school art teacher.
One of the first things I noticed was that my female students
were even more obsessed with dieting than my friends and I had ever been!
I was surrounded by bright, attractive, talented and creative young women
who constantly complained and agonized
over perfectly normal, attractive, healthy female physiques.
The first comment students made whenever we studied art history was always
“Why are the women so fat?”
The comments were never about ideal feminine beauty, but fat!
And not just fat, but “Gross! Disgusting! Ugly!”
No matter what I said, my students could not imagine a society that admired anything
but the super-thin ideal of today.
And then, shortly before her graduation day,
one of my darling students died from anorexia…
Soon after, characters began appearing as doodles in my sketchbooks:
happy, funny, sassy, sexy full-figured women going through life at full force!
Captions, poems, and little stories popped into my mind and begged to be illustrated.
Drawing, coloring and writing became my way of coping with the senseless loss of my student,
and, surprisingly, acted as a healing for my own issues with body image, eating disorders and self-esteem.
In the years that have passed since those first sketchbooks,
dozens of amazing books on size acceptance and self-esteem have been published.
There are glamorous publications about plus-size beauty and fashion, style and sex appeal.
“Real women” are seen more often on TV and in movies, on magazine covers and in advertising.
There are print and web resources for plus-size products, social groups, fat activism blogs and size-related medical practices.
Even some designer clothes now come in a full range of sizes.
And thankfully, many schools now see eating disorders as a very serious health threat,
taking aggressive steps to identify it and intervene before it is too late.
However, our culture’s obsession with body size and weight seems to be as strong as ever.
Too many smart, talented, and attractive women, teenagers and girls
continue to harm themselves both emotionally and physically,
continue to actually hate their own bodies, because of the size of the jeans they wear!
Friends and family member, students and co-workers,
poor body image and disordered eating patterns run deep through our lives,
and robs too many women of the time, money and energy
that could be put toward living an authentic and joyful life.
I am not a doctor, a therapist, a researcher or a nutritionist.
I am simply an artist who cares deeply about these issues.
My grandmother used to say “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
My cute drawings and upbeat writings are my way of adding a little honey
to the serious issues of positive body image and self-esteem.
