AOW #1- Woman's Quest to Avoid Mirrors for a Year Raises Questions of Body Image

This article is about a UCLA graduate student, Kjerstin Gruys, whose goal is to prove how significant appearance is to the lives of women. After battling with anorexia for over a decade and living in an image-based society, Kjerstin decided to challenge herself by resisting to look at mirrors for a whole year. The context of this article is prompted by a trend among women. With today's widespread media, women are being more influenced by the images they see of celebrities and an increasing number are beginning to obsess over their looks.

The audience of this article is intended for high school and college students who, during this stage in their lives, believe that beauty is necessary for survival in our society. The audience can connect to Kjerstin Gruys because she is a graduate student who dealt with similar issues about her image. The author's purpose for this piece is to make other women think about how much of an impact beauty has on their lives. The author effectively used a few rhetorical elements such as the Appeals, a metaphor, a hyperbole, and irony. Bonnie Rochman accomplished this purpose because she provided personal experiences about Kjerstin Gruys that allowed the audience to connect on a deeper level. 

This article came from the health section of TIME Magazine, which is a very well established and global magazine. Bonnie Rochman, the author, writes regularly for the health section and travels globally to report the news from different countries.

Rochman, Bonnie. "Woman’s Quest to Avoid Mirrors for a Year Raises Questions of Body Image – TIME Healthland."TIME Healthland - A healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2011. <http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/08/womans-quest-to-avoid-mirrors-for-a-year-raises-questions-of-body-image/>.