Lizzie McGuire is a show I did not watch.
I WAS aware of it growing up, but had little interest in watching it because it was JUST
out of my age range; the main demographic was preteens and I was already a couple years
into highschool when it aired.
The show followed Lizzie McGuire, a 13 year girl who is just kind of navigating her way
through middle school with the help of her friends Miranda and Gordo.
Lizzie has an alter-ego in the form of an animated cartoon character that symbolizes
her subconscious and addresses the audience throughout the episodes.
I mean...it’s cute.
Very inoffensive, some good humor and okay characters.
I don’t hate it.
But I won’t be discussing the series as a whole today, I will be focusing on a specific
episode from season 2 titled “Inner Beauty.”, wherein Miranda develops would could be loosely
called an eating disorder.
For a day.
Like I said, it’s loose.
I wouldn’t exactly call this a “very special episode” because it’s clear the writers
didn’t tackle the subject very seriously; it’s still very much a Lizzie McGuire episode,
complete with interludes of Lizzie’s alter ego saying random things, silly sound effects,
and a wacky subplot involving her annoying younger brother.
I should warn you that I will be talking about eating disorders and body dysmorphia in this
video; if you find those topics upsetting or triggering, than this may not be the video
for you.
I should also mention that I suffered with bulimia for 12 years, and am also currently
managing body dysmorphic disorder so I will be using a lot of my own experiences to reinforce
my points about this episode.
I’m going to be giving you the synopsis first, then I’ll discuss what the episode
got right and what it got wrong.
As we start the episode we see Lizzie and Miranda busting out some amazing dance moves
in preparation for being in a music video directed by Gordo.
After practice is over, Lizzie and Miranda start chowing down on a ton of junk food,
which prompts Gordo to say: “Man, you guys eat a lot.”
Real good friend there, Gordo.
Lizzie and Miranda just kind of brush it off and continue to enjoy their food.
The next day at school, Miranda tells Lizzie she is upset that she only got a B on one
of her exams and starts to worry about her grades and the pressure to do well from her
parents.
She’s surprised that she didn’t get an A and is like “HOW CAN THIS BE?”
Get it, how can this B. Because...yeah that’s a bad one, I’m sorry.
Gordo shows them the photos he took to promote the music video.
Miranda sees her photo and is horrified at her appearance, despite looking exactly the
same as her non photographed self.
Miranda: “How come no one’s ever told me I have like, six chins?”
Lizzie: “Because you only have one.”
Lizzie and Gordo are confused by her reaction; they tell her that she looks great and can’t
see what she is seeing.
Fearful of what she’ll look like on camera, Miranda decides to go on a diet.
Gordo says she is overreacting, which is possibly the worst thing you can say to someone who
is clearly upset.
Miranda starts comparing herself to the women she sees in the media and laments about not
looking like them.
The next day she skips lunch and makes excuses for not eating what looks to be an abandoned
arts and crafts project.
Lizzie and Gordo display a minimal amount of concern.
We can’t let anything get too serious so here’s a subplot for comic relief.
Turns out Lizzie’s younger brother Matt has a talent for art and his parents decide
the best way to encourage his new interest is by coddling him and letting him to whatever
his quirky heart desires.
Matt decides to demonstrate his new skills in a needlessly messy way but his parents
are okay with it because he’s a budding artist that needs support.
Mom: “If this is your passion then we’re here to encourage you, right hunny?”
Dad: “Even if it DOES smell.”
While rehearsing for the music video, Miranda becomes exhausted from not eating and exerting
too much energy from dancing, and nearly passes out.
Her mom shows some concern and Miranda lies about having lunch.
Gordo then goes on a very long, rambly rant about the pressures of being a young girl
in a beauty conscious society, and Lizzie is like, “Gordo, shut the fuck up you don’t
know what you’re talking about.”
Sorry, Lizzie didn’t say that, I did.
My bad.
MORE COMIC RELIEF in the form of montage.
Later, when Lizzie and Miranda are shopping, Lizzie suggests trying on a new pair of jeans.
Miranda responds with “Why?
So my fat can hang over the top?
No thanks.”
Lizzie’s alter-ego states that Miranda must not be seeing herself in the mirror correctly.
She then decides to voice her concerns about Miranda’s diet, saying it doesn’t make
any sense, and that it’s scaring her.
Miranda doesn’t take this well and becomes angry, denying that there’s an issue and
saying that it’s none of Lizzie’s business.
Lizzie asks her mom for advice on what to do; her mom tells her that if things don’t
improve over the next few days she will get in touch with Miranda and her mom and discuss
it with them.
More weird cartoon stuff to quash the seriousness.
The next day, when Miranda shows up for filming, Gordo apologizes for his comment about her
eating too much, and Lizzie once again voices concern.
Miranda opens up, admitting that her life feels out of control; she feels like her grades
are suffering and that her parents are putting extra pressure on her, so she chose to take
control of her eating as a way to deal.
Miranda: “Like, all this other stuff just happens to me but eating is something I have
a say in.”
But holy shit, we can’t let this get too serious so back to Matt; because his parents
didn’t chastise him earlier for making a mess, he decides to be even more liberal with
his art and paints his Dad’s car.
Dad: “That’s my car…”
They take this oddly well; Dad just keeps muttering “but that’s my car” over and
over again and his mom is like, “Hunny, next time please use paper.”
I’m not kidding, he isn’t even punished.
I’d punish him just for this hideous composition.
The music video is fine I guess; Lizzie can do a pretty sick backflip.
After watching it, Miranda decides she looks amazing and everything is solved thanks to
the power of friendship and DANCE.
Also, does anyone else find it unfortunate that Gordo’s name translates to fat in Spanish?
Anyway, The End!
Okay, let’s talk about how this episode handles Miranda’s problem in more detail;
First: the things I thought the episode did well: The first time Miranda conveys unhappiness
with her appearance is after she sees the promotional photos Gordo took.
Her reaction is intense and very cruel towards herself.
You might be thinking, “wow, that was abrupt; how can Miranda see herself that differently
so suddenly just from seeing one photo of herself?”
And to that I would say...it’s not the MOST far off.
Perceiving physical flaws that either aren’t there or are very minor are symptoms of Body
Dysmorphic disorder, which is a mental illness in the obsessive compulsive spectrum.
It often leads to things like eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia because the person’s
perception of themselves is so extreme, that it can lead to extreme measures to fix those
imaginary flaws.
I was about 11 years old when I saw a school photo of myself and became very aware of my
appearance, and became obsessed with things that were not a big deal to anyone else.
Early on, it was geared towards my body and weight, but presently my BDD is focused on
my face; in Miranda’s case it’s her weight and the imagined double chins.
In fact, Miranda’s strong reactions to how she looks is probably one of the most accurate
things about the episode; intrusive thoughts affiliated with disordered eating or thinking
do tend to be very harsh; having Miranda say something as blunt as “Why, so my fat can
spill over the top?” isn’t dramatic, it’s accurate.
I have diary entries from elementary school that profess similar sentiments.
Typically it isn’t just one thing that leads someone to feel this way though; in my case
and in the case of many others it was a combination of societal pressures, body shaming, and depression;
but because we really only have 22 minutes to get this problem resolved they consolidated
it to a single picture and Gordo’s previous comment about eating a lot.
The fact that Miranda obviously has a small frame doesn’t make this scenario less realistic;
people can be ANY weight, any age, any gender, and suffer from Body Dysmorphic Disorder or
develop an eating disorder.
It’s about perception, not about what you actually look like to other people; a person
like Miranda really would see something that isn’t there and have a strong reaction to
it, so these elements of the episode are somewhat grounded in reality, they are just rushed.
I should also say that not everyone who has BDD has an eating disorder, and vice versa,
but for the most part dysmorphic thoughts, like the ones Miranda was having when she
saw that photo, do lead to problems with eating and exercise.
The fear of being on camera is also very realistic of course, and something I relate to on a
personal level.
I find the fear of how I look on camera to be one of the most intrusive thoughts related
to BDD.
I found Miranda’s anger towards Lizzie while they were shopping notable; eating disorders
tend to be very secretive; I’ve had very similar reactions to people who have noticed
my behavior and tried to bring it up; it feels like you’ve been caught or sometimes even
accused of something, and I find that can spark anger, even if it’s not warranted.
Though again, this is very rushed and it all happens over the course of a couple days so
it’s hard to take it seriously, even when some of these parts aren’t messing up too
horribly.
Obviously if this became a plot point for the series I think exploring things like feeling
shame, denial, and anger would be very beneficial.
I’m not sure how accurate I think they are, but I do appreciate the fact that Gordo apologizes
for his comments on Miranda’s eating, and the fact that Lizzie attempts to get some
outside help from her mom when she doesn’t know what to do.
I can’t say I’ve met many kids in middle school that would’ve had the maturity to
apologize to me, or even have the experience to help me through disordered thinking, but
the fact that Gordo bluntly said he was for something he didn’t mean to be harmful is
important, and I was pleasantly surprised by it.
It shows young people that apologizing when you hurt someone is good, no matter what your
intent may be.
I’d also say it’s a little weird for Lizzie to be so blunt with her mom about Miranda,
but I’m happy it made it into the episode; it’s critical for kids to recognize when
they can’t help someone, and that talking to and being honest with someone they can
trust can provide extra support.
It’s important that people realize that if a friend or loved one is suffering from
a mental illness, that you can take a step back and own up to the fact that you may not
know exactly how to handle it, but are willing to try and find other sources to help.
In this episode it’s a little saccharine if I’m honest, but it IS Disney so I guess
I should have expected that.
And if you think I’m being a little too charitable towards this episode, don’t worry,
I have a lot to say.
The biggest problem with this is that there really isn’t a lot of time to explore what
needs to be to have any kind of impact on someone.
It’s a good attempt, I’m glad a show as goofy as Lizzie McGuire at least wanted to
address disordered eating, but why even bother if you aren’t even willing to commit the
full 22 minutes to it?
It’s really not a bad show when it’s following a pretty innocuous storyline, but it’s not
structured to adequately address complex subjects.
The fact that the writers wasted time with a weird subplot about Lizzie’s brother is
so disappointing to me; I feel like the whole episode should have be dedicated to Miranda’s
issue, but instead anything serious gets undercut by the “annoying younger brother” trope,
which is why it doesn’t fall under the “very special episode” category for me; it’s
still way too wacky and unfocused.
I hesitate to even refer to Miranda’s problem as an eating disorder, even though the characters
treat it as one, and Lizzie even refers to it as a “starvation diet”, but we don’t
really see it turn into something more serious, probably due once again to time constraints.
Since we never really see a disorder develop I would call what Miranda is experiencing
disordered thinking, which can be nipped in the bud early with support and therapy.
What bothered me most about this episode is honestly not how Miranda was portrayed or
how the characters interacted, it’s the ENDING.
When Miranda finally opens up to her friends, she says she chose to starve herself because
it’s something she could control, unlike the external pressures from school and her
parents.
I’m not saying that’s inaccurate; when I had bulimia everything had to be controlled,
to a detrimental level.
The episode simply doesn’t illustrate the very serious ways that sufferers micro manage
their eating and why, so it’s hard for me to believe that this character did it just
to have control over something, especially since very early on, the reason for her behavior
was due to how she saw herself in a photo.
It felt like the episode was setting up the conflict around how Miranda genuinely saw
herself, and so the resolution would need to be related to helping her through that,
but instead it went back to grades.
I think the writers were just conflating too many things, and that made it difficult to
focus on the eating problem and her skewed perception of her appearance.
I think there was a missed opportunity to really explore how eating disorders start,
and to go into Body Dysmorphia since it is HARDLY EVER addressed in media; I feel like
Lizzie McGuire recycles the same things we commonly affiliate with characters who decide
to not eat; Miranda almost fainting when she was dancing, for example: We know why that
happened, because she hadn’t eaten lunch, but that only addresses a physical symptom
of a much bigger problem.
We’ve all seen commercials or scenes in movies and television that feature an emaciated
girl looking into the mirror and seeing something different, this episode mentions it briefly
using Lizzie’s alter ego; but media rarely gives this behavior a name, and BDD is so
under discussed that it’s hard to get treatment.
I’m of course deep diving and possibly over analyzing this episode, but I do find it strange
that writers are so willing to show symptoms of a mental illness without going beyond the
surface; TV usually plays it relatively safe and episodes like these just kind of serve
as a cautionary tale.
I think mental illnesses in general deserve more than a 22 minute episode that ends with
“Everything is okay in 2 days due to the power of friendship!”, but I do respect
that someone tried.
Lizzie McGuire was probably not the right show to cover such a heavy topic; I do give
it credit for trying, especially since Lizzie McGuire was geared towards young girls, so
you’d think this IS the right place to put a message like this, but ultimately I think
it’s unsuccessful.
It’s not the worst, and it definitely wasn’t offensive but I think it could have done better,
and in terms of children’s entertainment I think raising the bar is always essential.
And even though the episode wasn’t all it could have been, I do hope my commentary on
it is valuable to someone.
I’ve yet to see many television shows handle eating disorders, BDD, or OCD well, but I’m
open to hearing about ones that you think did.
If you are currently suffering from an eating disorder, or think you might have BDD, I want
you to know that you are not alone and that there is hope for getting better; I struggled
with bulimia for 12 years and recovered in 2014.
I still manage BDD every day, which is why I am appearing on camera for this video; it’s
hard as fuck but I wanted to do it despite my feelings about myself, and show you that
you are capable of doing things like this as well.
You don’t need to keep things a secret, and you are not a burden.
I will be donating $50 dollars and whatever I make on this video to the BDD Foundation,
an organization dedicated to providing information, support, and resources about Body Dysmorphic
Disorder, including hotlines for disordered eating, suicide ideation, and and obsessive
compulsive disorder.
Do consider checking out the website if you’re interested in learning more.
I do hope you took something good away from from this video, even if you came into it
with limited experience on the subject.
If you liked it, please considering liking and sharing it.
There are links in the description if you care to check out my social media pages, and
if you need a break from this heavier topic then feel free to check out my Murder, She
Wrote retrospectives.
As always, see you in the next one.