Why we shouldn’t fear the 15
Why the “freshman 15” is doing more harm than good for first-year students. By: Taylor Lander (Content Warning: Body-image, eating disorders, and weight gain) I find my hand instinctively resting over my abdomen. I arise from my chair sucking in my stomach and wrap my arms around my torso. This shield against onlookers serves no purpose, and I know no one is really looking. However, this has been a habit of mine since middle school and followed me to my first year of college.
Not only is the stigma of the 15 psychologically harmful, but it’s incredibly unfounded. According to The Atlantic, 14 different studies of about 1800 people showed an average gain of about 4.6 pounds in their first year of college. 1
Sometimes I still can’t escape the feeling of eyes that scan over my body and the silent whispers of unintelligible words that seem to aim right at me. This not only made the transition to college harder but the fear of the “Freshman 15” even more drastic.
“You’re living in a place you weren’t living in before. It’s a new transition… It’s a complete 180 in your life and schedule.” - Hannah M. (She/her), Sophomore Being a first-year is…terrifying. While watching my parents leave my dorm room on move-in day, I felt the space around me expand. Moving my belongings to a new place where every face is unfamiliar was hard, but actually finding the courage to make them feel familiar was even harder. Stigmas like the Freshman 15 enlarge these issues for incoming freshmen and engraves fear into them. They fear the weight gain just as much as they fear not being able to eat.
Photo taken by Sophie Warrick
“I’m eating a lot less healthy because I have the stigma of Freshman 15 in my head already, so it’s causing me to act upon it like a self-fulfilling prophecy.” - Serena X. (She/her), First-Year Stigmas like the Freshman 15 cloud first-year minds on what they believe to be important. While the changes may be subtle and unconscious, there is a real danger in them. They are silently working behind the scenes
1Khazan,
Olga. “The Origin of the ‘Freshman 15’ Myth.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Sept. 2014
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