By: Jamie Steinberg
Fifteen year old Esme likes to dance. Excuse me, she LOVES it. However, she feels something is holding her back from reaching her full potential as a dancer and that is her large chest. When Esme and her best friend Mia earn a highly sought after spot on the Elite dance team these two know they have a lot to prove not only to their teacher Miss Regina, but to the senior girls who aren’t ready to accept them into their sisterhood. Not to mention Esme is having some issues at home and with her self image. Top Heavy is a beautiful story for any of us who felt held back by our bodies.
Esme loves to dance. She and her best friend Mia thrive in the studio dancing. They have put in the hard work – sweating, stretching and dazzling – and have earned a spot on the Elite dance team. With the senior girls not being so welcoming, Esme and Mia know they have to be better than good to keep their spots. This is going to be a problem for Esme for two reasons – her father was injured at work and will need surgery on his back. Thus, Esme’s mother has been working over time at a restaurant in order to keep food on the table (don’t let that mustard sandwich fool you). Therefore, tuition to the dance school and even costume money is going to be an issue. The other thing distracting Esme is the stress on her body from having a large chest. She is teased a bit by one of the girls on her dance team and even finds herself oversexualized by classmates and various men that she encounters. Is this her fault? Not at all. But as a teenage girl, you internalize everything and are embarrassed. Enter Grammy Jean. When Esme’s grandmother arrives she learns some much needed lessons about self-confidence and speaking up for yourself.
I loved this book. I had a feeling I would from the title (as someone “top heavy” myself), but reading Top Heavy, I was blown away. First, author Rhonda DeChambeau has crafted each of her pages in such a way that they read like poems – each one a chapter in and of itself. Second of all, Esme is my girl. I was just like her in high school – top heavy and embarrassed about my body and probably in need of a better bra. Both Grammy Jean and a certain someone later on in the book help remind Esme that she has nothing to be ashamed of and that she should always stand tall. I wish more books were written about those of us who struggle with our body image because we’re “top heavy.”
DeChambeau artfully crafts a story with Top Heavy about a young girl who, like so many of us, struggle with our self image at a time when we’re most vulnerable to internal, and sometimes external, messages. Be like Esme – stand tall and know what you look like does not define how others should see you. And Rhonda DeChambeau, if you’re reading this, thank you.