Skyscraper

“You can take everything I have
You can break everything I am
Like I'm made of glass
Like I'm made of paper
Go on and try to tear me down
I will be rising from the ground
Like a skyscraper”

Skyscraper – Demi Lovato

You can squeeze an awful lot into one month. There’s more or less an entire moon cycle, public holidays and anniversaries. If you think back over what you do for an entire month – from working around 20 days, going out three or four weekends and, if you’re like one of my group of friends, going to our monthly end of month dinner. But on top of all this different months represent programmes in our society which aim to increase awareness around issues. For example, this month in America is African-American History Month, American Heart Month, Children’s Dental Health Month, Ethnic Equality Month, Wise Mental Health Consumer Month, Women's Heart Health Day and Eating Disorders Screening Program Month.

The latter of all of those coincides with – or could be the inspiration for – the anniversary of the death of Karen Carpenter. Karen’s death was the one of the first to bring eating disorder illnesses to society’s attention thirty years ago, and since many celebrities have come out confessing their own issues with diet and exercising. Included within these is Demi Lovato, who publically told her personal struggle story and how she battled with bulimia. She says the release of her song Skyscraper was her way of crying out for help and trying to fight back against her bullies.

The eating disorder issue is far too big for me to tackle in one blog – and probably far too big to tackle in one month – but I have one point to it. From what I’ve read and seen, there seems to be a cycle. Both Karen Carpenter and Demi Lovato appear to have at least partially blamed the profession they are in for triggering their disorders, as they felt they had no control over their lives and turned to controlling their diet. However, these are two women who have so many fans looking up to them and trying to be like them – especially Lovato – and I shudder to think how many people have been “inspired” to control their own diets. I hope more Demi has overcome her issues and inspired millions of girls to fight back against their personal problems.

These are, as always, only musings. I find this an interesting topic because of the way it affects society, and the way it has worked its way into pop culture. Take songs like Skyscraper, or Through Glass by Stone Sour or countless movies about teenage struggles or indeed a month dedicated to raising awareness, which bring to light the brutal problems some people struggle with.