Extract- Does My Head Look Big In This?

Aw. This book is really nice. Its called “Does My Head Look Big In This?” by Randa Abdel-Fattah. Its about this muslim girl in Australia, who studies at a stuck-up grammar school called McCleans. No big deal. But then, she decides to start wearing the hijab full time. The book is about all the probs she has and how she handles them. the book discusses prejudices and serious topics like this in a very…cool manner. They come up in Amal (main lead)’s daily life, and she talks about it in her own witty-wise way. She’s pretty funny and makes you think a lot without being too serious or feel like you’re being preached on how to treat muslims. Nice.

I’m fond of one particular para in the book, which could be credited for me liking the book overall:
Amal (hijab-wearing muslim girl, victim of prejudiced thoughts) and Simone (“oh-my-god-I’m-fat-because-I’m-not-stick-thin-so-I’m-horrible-inspite-of-being-damn-beautiful” girl, victim of society. Oh well, aren’t we all…)
“
Simone shrugs her shoulders. “Yeah, well, it’s probably true…sometimes I start a diet and then I open a Cosmo or a Cleo and there are these articles about pregnant superstars losing thirty kilos in two or three months and here I am struggling to lose a kilo. So I give up and demolish a Mars bar. Or I see all these model shoots of these gorgeous beach babes with their bones poking into my hand when I turn the pages and I think, what’s the point? Even if I lose ten kilos and was in my weight-height ratio, people would still consider me fat. I wish I could be anorexic. How sick is that, huh? But I don’t have the self-control to live off a lettuce leaf a day. And I’ve tried the whole bulimia thing but I can’t even throw up. I’m just pathetic! Abnormal!”
“You know what? Who cares what normal is, Simone. Let’s protest. From now on we’re anti-normal, anti-average, anti-standard. You can eat when you want to, I’ll wear what I want to, and we’ll die with a packet of chips in our hand and a tablecloth on our head.”
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