Althouse: "By the time she was a teenager, she had anorexia and worried she would 'never be skinny enough to love,' she said."

September 14, 2025

"By the time she was a teenager, she had anorexia and worried she would 'never be skinny enough to love,' she said."

"At 17, she weighed 88 pounds, and a doctor told her that if she lost any more weight, she could die. She recalls thinking that death 'sounded quiet, it sounded calm,' she writes. 'I knew that if I died, I could stop trying.' Thinness felt safe, she writes, but it was actually the opposite: 'I was dancing with death and getting date-raped and drinking to excess and popping pills like Tic Tacs and exposing myself to all kinds of delicious abuse just to feel something.' She has been in remission from her eating disorder for many years, she said... She writes about an exploratory visit with a fertility expert... [T]he specialist, who treats other celebrities, brought up weight gain: She could 'get away' with putting on only about 20 pounds during pregnancy, including the weight of the baby. That would mean a smaller child, the doctor added, but if she wanted her kid to be taller later on, there was always human growth hormone."

From "At Least Zosia Mamet Can Laugh About It/In her new book, the actress turns her acid wit to Hollywood’s darker side and her own personal struggles" (NYT).

25 comments:

n.n said...: Never skinny enough. Never fat enough. Never, never is a transsocial phenomenon. Modern culture suffers from a Goldilocks complex with collateral damage.; 9/14/25, 9:55 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: Never heard of her. Where do they dig these freaks up?; 9/14/25, 10:10 AM
Joe Bar said...: FormerLawClerk said...
"Never heard of her. Where do they dig these freaks up?"

From what I was able to read of the article, she was one of the main characters in that hilarious sitcom "Girls."

That explains it.; 9/14/25, 10:13 AM
Dave Begley said...: FLC:

Ever hear of David Mamet? His daughter.; 9/14/25, 10:18 AM
rehajm said...: She seemed okay in early interviews, now she’s kind of broken. Vermont can mess with your head if you’re not careful…; 9/14/25, 10:20 AM
Aggie said...: Sorry, life-too-short disinterest. I suspect if I read it, I'd feel compelled to comment on her 'acid' mid-wit.; 9/14/25, 10:36 AM
Quaestor said...: female appetite diseases -- No one needs to be reminded that the category does not include too little food obtainable.

Says it all, doesn't it?; 9/14/25, 10:37 AM
Spiros said...: Karen Carpenter died after a long struggle with anorexia.; 9/14/25, 10:39 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Why does the NYT's read like an upscale National Equirer?; 9/14/25, 10:41 AM
Achilles said...: It sounds like anorexia right?

People need to understand this is a spectrum and everyone is on it.

Everyone cares to some extent about the balance between diet and health. She was underweight because she didn't want to be fat. Maybe by 20-30 pounds.

People call her crazy and sick.

If you are more than thirty pounds overweight You are just as sick as this girl was.; 9/14/25, 10:46 AM
JZ said...: Anorexia was a big deal. It got lots of attention. It seemed like a problem. And then it wasn’t.; 9/14/25, 10:50 AM
Not Illinois Resident said...: Read the article before coming here this morning. NYT tacitly endorses the starved model look in its T Magazine editorial content, every single issue featuring malnourished teen models in silly clothes.; 9/14/25, 10:59 AM
Jamie said...: In my first job after college, I worked with the woman close to twice my age, and another who was just about my age. The one who was my age was pregnant, and when she was not in the room, the older woman would - without specifically referencing her - talk about how you shouldn't have to gain more than about 15 lb in pregnancy - seven or so for the baby, and the other eight for all the other stuff.

I think Achilles is wrong about the similarities between anorexia and being overweight. You can be very very overweight before it kills you in weeks. You cannot be very very underweight without risking death in weeks. But it is a spectrum, that I'll agree to - one of the things that makes weight loss so challenging for many of us is that you can't just quit eating the way you might quit smoking or quit drinking alcohol. You still have to eat. You have to find a way to moderate something that you are not good at moderating.; 9/14/25, 11:03 AM
Jamie said...: Also - I'm sure there are a few overweight people whose mental process is, "If I could just get a little fatter, I would finally be perfect." A very few. But that kind of thinking is, I understand, common among anorexic people.; 9/14/25, 11:05 AM
Josephbleau said...: I like the trope of the older wiser drug freak who screwed everyone. “Back in the day we would take speed in the morning and then calm down by dropping 10 quaaludes, then swallow three micro dots and a fifth of gin and head for the group grope, and we suffered for our performance art but we persevered.” “It was the style at the time.”; 9/14/25, 11:07 AM
Levi Starks said...: So, since transgenderism which is on the body disphoria scale was included in different post today,
I’m I’m going to ask the question exactly how is believing (when seeing yourself in a mirror) that you’re obese when obviously not, any different believing the sexual body you see is different from the actual physical reality?; 9/14/25, 11:29 AM
Eva Marie said...: So this is my theory. Women’s bodies were not made for factory produced clothes. Manufactured clothes are made for some mythical “average” woman that does not exist. When women buy clothes they criticize themselves. My butt’s too small, my hips are too wide, my shoulders are too narrow, etc. Too much variety in women’s shapes. When women have their clothes made for them or sew them themselves, the blame shifts to the clothes maker. I should have cut this wider, I should have taken in this seam. These problems of self image didn’t exist when clothing was made for each individual woman. A bit of an oversimplification but I think it’s a contributing factor.; 9/14/25, 11:33 AM
n.n said...: There are boys and girls who evolve through puberty with a sense of confusion, dissatisfaction that should not be normalized, let alone celebrated. Idle minds and hands and all that.; 9/14/25, 11:38 AM
Narr said...: Celebrity kid; almost certain to be effed up along multiple axes.

My wife used to make a lot of her own clothes, falling well into Eva Marie's 'hard to fit' observation. In her case her tits were too small and her butt too big for most off the rack clothes.

It bothers her a lot more than it bothers me.; 9/14/25, 11:59 AM
Achilles said...: Jamie said...

I think Achilles is wrong about the similarities between anorexia and being overweight.

I am not saying they are similar. We are talking about a spectrum. They are oppositional.

People who are anorexic care too much about how they look.

People who are fat care too little about how they look.

They are both unhealthy.

And starvation vs gluttony both have extremes that can kill you at the same rate. You can certainly eat enough food in a month to kill yourself.; 9/14/25, 12:00 PM
Achilles said...: Narr said...

It bothers her a lot more than it bothers me.

Women are always much more attached to appearances than men in all research on the subject.

You just can't say that out loud because it makes women mad.; 9/14/25, 12:02 PM
Achilles said...: Eva Marie said...

So this is my theory. Women’s bodies were not made for factory produced clothes. Manufactured clothes are made for some mythical “average” woman that does not exist. When women buy clothes they criticize themselves. My butt’s too small, my hips are too wide, my shoulders are too narrow, etc. Too much variety in women’s shapes. When women have their clothes made for them or sew them themselves, the blame shifts to the clothes maker. I should have cut this wider, I should have taken in this seam. These problems of self image didn’t exist when clothing was made for each individual woman. A bit of an oversimplification but I think it’s a contributing factor.

You are on the right track. Women's beauty is always judged on how close it is to the mean.

Scientists have been able to use digital imaging and mathematical models to create composite pictures of the average facial composition of sets of women. They will take X number of women and they will average out Eye separation, Eyebrow ridge depth, angle height, width and height of the oval shape hair color etc.

The composite picture formed from the women is always more attractive than any of the women used to create the image.

Further the more women were used to create the composite the more attractive the composite became.

This makes sense. In evolutionary terms women just need to be "good enough." Given the role women played in our evolutionary development there was no real benefit to being an exceptional female. You were going to produce 4-8 children at the most no matter how awesome you were.

Men on the other hand are in a much different situation.; 9/14/25, 12:11 PM
boatbuilder said...: "...was getting date-raped..."

What the hell? She just drops that in like it's a hangover or something. I don't think weight is the issue here.; 9/14/25, 12:23 PM
Tom T. said...: I think the dangerous part of anorexia is not just that you're underweight, but that you're still convinced that you're overweight and need to keep dieting. You keep driving your health toward disaster without understanding what you're doing.

By contrast, I'm 15 pounds too heavy, but I'm well aware of it.; 9/14/25, 12:25 PM
Lazarus said...: Actress mom/writer dad. Not a good recipe for mental well-being. Anorexia, though, is a throwback. To be really up to date she'd have to be trans.

Tyrus recognized that Charlie Kirk was on the same side but couldn't get enthusiastic about him. I feel the same way about David Mamet.; 9/14/25, 1:25 PM