Hannah Zacharia*
Is Weight Loss Camp A “Safe-Haven” for Overweight
Children?
Conflicting messages are conveyed to children concerning weight loss,
how they should look and what they should be buying or eating. Today
it is very hard for them to discern what is healthy and what is normal,
especially for overweight children. One message that they are given is
to look like the models that are portrayed in the media. The other message the media puts out is that unhealthy foods should be consumed at a high rate. They do this by making them child-friendly. To attain the projected ideals in the media and to cope with them, overweight children often choose to pursue a summer weight-loss camp. In this study, I interviewed a few subjects that attended one of these camps. I questioned how much of a “safe haven” camps were, in terms of helping children to escape the mediated atmosphere they normally live in, and
how good it was for them in terms of attaining their goals. The study argues that the camps are “safe havens” because they provide over weight children a place to achieve their goals and feel more secure. The camp, however, is not a total “safe haven“ because the very definition of the camper’s goals and what they strive for is derived from the mediated messages and society’s standards.
*Hannah Zacharia, while not a formal member of the Honors Program, completed her project
as part of the Communication Senior Seminar.
