PIERSON, Stephanie

PERSONAL:

Female; married; children: Phoebe.

ADDRESSES:

Home—South Salem, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Simon & Schuster, 100 Front Street, Riverside, New Jersey, 08075.

CAREER:

Writer, advertising agency executive, copywriter, and columnist.

WRITINGS:

Because I'm the Mother, That's Why!: Mostly True Confessions of Modern Motherhood, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Vegetables Rock!: A Complete Guide for Teenage Vegetarians, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1999. (With Phyllis Cohen, CSW) "You Have to Say I'm

Pretty, You're My Mother": How to Help Your Daughter Learn to Love Her Body and Herself, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer Stephanie Pierson has seen first-hand the effects of eating disorders and obsession with perfect body images for young women. Pierson's daughter, Phoebe, developed anorexia nervosa as a teen. Worried about her daughter, Pierson started researching the disorder, looking for ways to help, but found that there were few effective resources available. In response, Pierson enlisted the assistance of New York psychotherapist Phyllis Cohen to write "You Have to Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother": How to Help Your Daughter Learn to Love Her Body and Herself, a book that "goes far beyond eating disorders to explore the complex relationship between girls and their mothers—and the powerful effect of body image on self-esteem," wrote Linda Lombroso on the Journal News Web site.

Every day teenage girls and young women face a bombardment of images, suggestions, and influential messages from the media, exhorting them to lose weight or strive for an unattainable ideal in body size. Peer groups exert social pressure for girls to conform to a group-determined size or weight. But of all these influences, the girl's mother has the greatest impact. "The essence of our findings are that while there are many factors that help determine how a girl feels about herself when she looks in the mirror—everything from the media to peer pressure to perfect body messages—there is one indisputable fact: mothers matter the most to a daughter's developing sense of her body and herself," Pierson and coauthor Phyllis Cohen wrote in an article on Feminist.com.

Pierson and Cohen differentiate between two important concepts: an eating disorder and disordered eating. In disordered eating, Pierson and Cohen report, a girl might suddenly go on a fad diet and just as suddenly stop. She might declare herself a vegetarian for weeks and abruptly resume eating cheeseburgers. Or, she might restrict herself to eating only a certain type of food for days and weeks on end. Even if the food choices might be unusual, someone with disordered eating patterns still eats. "In contrast, eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia can be far more serious—and can stem from unresolved issues within the family," Linda Lombroso remarked in a Journal News Online review.

Pierson and Cohen suggest that mothers closely examine their own attitudes about body image, and avoid making comments about themselves, their daughters, or others that disparage the body or body-image, that seem to be negative in any way about food and its purpose in life, or that criticize in any way the daughter's weight or body style. They also advocate keeping a sense of humor, effective and honest communication between mother and daughter, and patient understanding of the daughter's point of view. Pierson and daughter also stress the importance of male role models and acceptance and encouragement from fathers. The book presents "an easy way for parents to learn how to help their daughters develop a positive self and body image," remarked Joi M. Lasnick for My ParenTime.com. Rachel Collins and Mirela Roncevic, writing in Library Journal, called "You Have to Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother" a "relaxed, informative, and comprehensive overview" of body image and eating disorders in adolescent girls.

Vegetables Rock!: A Complete Guide for Teenage Vegetarians also originated from Pierson's inability to locate information resources for her family and vegetarian daughter Phoebe. She "wrote this helpful primer for young vegetarians when she was unable to find a book that answered her family's questions about the vegetarian diet," wrote Jane La Plante in Library Journal. In addition to detailed basic material such as the nutrition content of a vegetarian diet, Pierson also covers topics such as how to answer non-vegetarian's questions and how to find appropriate courses in public eateries such as school cafeterias and restaurants. Pierson also includes more than seventy recipes for a variety of vegetarian fare. Lists of cookbooks, vegetarian organizations, Web site, mail-order resources, and other information round out the book's contents. Paul Lappen, writing on the Under the Covers Web site, commented that "For anyone even thinking of going veggie, teen or adult, this is the place to start. It is very easy to read, and is packed with useful information." Stephanie Zvirin, writing in a Booklist review, called Vegetables Rock! a "well-written, very sensible book that will start teens off in the right direction."

In Because I'm the Mother, That's Why!: Mostly True Confessions of Modern Motherhood, Pierson offers a collection of humorous observations, quirky stories, and home-based truths of being a 1990s-era working wife and mother. Pierson puts a clever spin on topics such as gardening, pet ownership, and being a mother to a nine-year-old daughter. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Pierson an "Erma Bombeck for the baby boom generation" and noted that the "short, funny, and charming" volume "should lift the spirits of moms."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 1999, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Vegetables Rock!: A Complete Guide for Teenage Vegetarians, p. 1202; March 15, 2000, review of Vegetables Rock!, p. 1360.

Library Journal, March 1, 1999, Jane La Plante, review of Vegetables Rock!, p. 105; May 1, 2003, Rachel Collins and Mirela Roncevic, review of "You Have to Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother": How to Help Your Daughter Learn to Love Her Body and Herself, pp. 142-143.

Publishers Weekly, March 28, 1994, review of Because I'm the Mother, That's Why!: Mostly True Confessions of Modern Motherhood, p. 77.

ONLINE

Bella Online,http://www.bellaonline.com/ (March 12, 2004), C. S. Bezas, review of "You Have to Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother."

BookLoons.com,http://www.bookloons.com/ (March 12, 2004), Sally Selvadurai, review of "You Have to Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother."

Feminist.com,http://www.feminist.com/ (March 12, 2004), Stephanie Pierson and Phyllis Cohen, review of "You Have to Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother."

Journal News Online,http://www.thejournalnews.com/ (June 10, 2003), Linda Lombrosco, "Learning the Lingo: Book Coaches Mothers on How to Talk to Daughters."

MyParentime.com,http://www.myparentime.com/ (May, 2003), Joi M. Lasnick, review of "You Have to Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother."

Under the Covers Web site,http://www.silcom.com/ (March 12, 2004), Paul Lappen, review of Vegetables Rock!.*