He does this by showing the harmful effect of low self esteem though both Lia and Cassie. Anderson also speaks about the importance of self-esteem when living a happy life. Many families should drop their “scripts” just like Lia’s did, and speak from the heart. Although family is never perfect they are expecting, despite how mad or disappointed they get. Anderson tries to tell the audience that talking to family is the easiest way to get help. Once on it, one will begin to she themselves “thawing”, and the path will become clearer. Simply put there is no, “ magic cure…only small steps upward an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn’t matter anymore”.Īnderson is explaining that the hardest part of recovery is starting to go down the path. The novel emphasizes the importance if having people to help one get through depression. Although Lia shows the reader how someone who is in deep depression, with little hope of escaping, can fight their way out. Teenagers all over the world look at themselves in the mirror everyday and are embarrassed by a pimple or messy hair, but some are embarrassed by everything they see. Also, the end of the novel asserts that Lia goes to therapy, which will most likely elicit a desire for the audience to get the help they need as well. Lia was created to help teenage readers who are struggling with depression feel as though they are not alone( Lewis).

Lia and her friend Cassie used to have competitions to see who can go the longest without eating, and she was proud to be the “ thinnest girl in the room, hands down’ (78). Lia purposely starves herself because she overestimates the importance of one’s body image while they are a teenager. Physically, Lia is cold as well, due to her lack of body fat. She is neither living nor dead rather she is a “wintergirl”(196).

Anderson uses winter as a symbol throughout the story for the perpetual state of frozenness Lia is in. The young adult novel “Wintergirls”, by Laurie Halse Anderson, portrays the tyrannical world of the depressed teenager Lia Overbrook, who is an anorexic cutter who loathes her body, her family, and her life.