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A powerful coming-of-age graphic novel about how mothers and daughters pass down—and rebel against—standards of size, gender, race, beauty, and worth.
Guangdong, 1954 Sixteen-year-old Mei Laan longs for a future of freedom, and her beauty may be the key to getting it. Can an arranged marriage in Hong Kong be the answer to all her problems?
Hong Kong, 1972 Sixteen-year-old Lydia wants nothing more than to dance and to gain approval from her mother, who is largely absent and sharply critical, especially about the way she looks. Maybe her way to happiness is starting over in Toronto?
Toronto, 2000 Sixteen-year-old Roz is grappling with who she wants to be in the world. The only thing she is certain of is that if she were thinner, things would be better. How can she start living her life, instead of just photographing it?
When Roz's estranged por por abruptly arrives for a seemingly indefinite visit, three generations are now under one roof. Delicate relationships are suddenly upended, and long suppressed family secrets begin to surface.
Award-winning creator of Living with Viola Rosena Fung pulls from her own family history in her YA debut to give us an emotional and poignant story about how every generation is affected by those that came before, and affect those that come after.
Excerpted from Age 16 by Rosena Fung. Copyright © 2024 by Rosena Fung. Excerpted by permission of Annick Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Sixteen can be an exciting age, but also a painful and confusing one. In this clever graphic novel inspired in part by her own family's story, Rosena Fung shines a spotlight on the sixteenth year of three generations of women. It alternates between timelines, slowly giving the reader a fuller sense of the experiences that have shaped each main character.
In 2000 in Toronto, Rosalind feels like an outsider among her friends. They all seem so sure of themselves, with prom dates, supportive parents, and plans to attend competitive university programs. Meanwhile, Rosalind has no love life to speak of, a vague sense that she might want to go to art school, and crippling insecurities about her weight, which are only exacerbated by her calorie-counting mother. When her strict and critical grandmother turns up out of the blue for a visit, tensions within the family run high.
In 1970s Hong Kong, Rosalind's mother, Lydia, is facing her own body image issues. Her beautiful mother belittles her about her weight, and Lydia is often lonely at home while her mother goes out on dates. She loves dancing, but is barred from a performance she longs to be part of because she's told she doesn't have the right look. Lydia dreams of a different life and starts to think about applying for scholarships to boarding schools in Canada.
In 1950s Guangdong, China, Rosalind's grandmother Mei Laan is growing up in an environment steeped in poverty, physical labor, and sexual harassment. Her harsh mother is haunted by memories of war, often crying out in her sleep. Mei Laan's father has gone to Hong Kong to seek work, but hasn't yet sent for his family. So when he sends news that he's found her a husband in Hong Kong, she's thrilled. She doesn't yet know that her married life will be even more perilous than her childhood.
Intergenerational trauma is a big theme of Age 16. Mei Laan criticizes Lydia because she wants her daughter to have a better life than she does, and she believes being conventionally attractive and marrying a good man is the way to get that. Lydia sees her own ongoing struggles with her weight when she looks at Rosalind, so she thinks she's helping her by urging her to diet.
We see similar themes of self-discovery and resilience play out across the characters' stories. Mei Laan bravely travels to Hong Kong on her own as a teenager, and when her husband turns out to be abusive, she leaves and works to lift herself and her baby daughter out of poverty. Lydia makes plans for a life overseas, in a country she's never even visited, despite knowing that it will anger her mother. And Rosalind decides to live fully as herself and embrace her own quirky, artistic hobbies, even if her overachieving friends don't understand this.
The illustrations make clever use of color. Scenes set in Rosalind's sixteenth year are in different shades of purple, Lydia's in orange, and Mei Laan's in teal. As the family slowly comes to better understand one another, we see pops of orange and teal appear in Rosalind's world, signaling a newfound sense of connection.
With the Y2K aesthetic making a comeback, young readers will likely enjoy the early 2000s setting of Rosalind's story, which is full of butterfly clips, crop tops, and mix CDs. But beneath the fun is a deeper message that many of the insecurities teenagers face are more universal than they realize. This book shows body image issues, conflict with parents, and struggles to belong play out across decades and on opposite sides of the world. There's a sense of "we're all in this together" that will resonate with readers young and old, and make teenage readers in particular feel less alone.
Reviewed by Jillian Bell
Deb JJ Lee, creator of In Limbo
Victoria Ying, Harvey Award–winning author of Hungry Ghost
In Age 16 by Rosena Fung, we see body image issues play out across generations. Characters make disapproving comments about their daughters' bodies or encourage them to diet because they think they are being helpful. Lydia models diet culture for her daughter by criticizing her own body and openly counting calories.
As is apparent in the novel's depiction of these issues in multiple eras and settings, from Guangdong to Hong Kong to Toronto, body dissatisfaction can exist across cultures. However, research shows it is especially persistent in wealthy countries with a more consumption-focused lifestyle. A study found that African immigrants to Europe took a more negative view of their bodies than Africans in Africa did. In Western countries, women who aren't white may feel more pressure to meet the Western beauty ideal in other ways, like through low body weight. Stress and discrimination can also trigger eating disorders for ethnic minorities in majority-white countries, and they may face barriers in getting help. Eating disorder rates in American women of Asian descent may be as high or higher than in white women, but they are less likely to be referred for treatment.
Studies also suggest that body image struggles are heritable, and the way mothers feel about their own bodies can have a big impact on their daughters. Very few mothers want their daughters to feel bad about their bodies, of course. But their response to the societal pressure to be thin can impact the next generation.
One study of five-year-old girls found that children whose mothers dieted were more likely to believe in a connection between dieting and body size. Children whose mothers diet are also more likely to go on to diet themselves. And mothers who speak negatively about heavier people are likely to pass on these attitudes to their daughters.
As Dr. Leslie Sim, clinical director of the Mayo Clinic's eating disorders program, tells USA Today: "Even if a mom says to the daughter, 'You look so beautiful, but I'm so fat,' it can be detrimental."
So what is a well-intentioned mother to do? How can a woman dealing with her own body image issues raise a daughter free of the same trauma?
Psychologist Sabrina Romanoff tells Forbes that being "kind and forgiving to your own body" is the "single best thing parents can do" to improve their child's body confidence.
Experts suggest that practices that most benefit daughters are beneficial to the mother as well. For instance, banishing negative self-talk and learning to practice self-compassion can help women raise daughters who are more confident in their bodies — while also improving their own self-image. A more varied media intake — consuming images and stories featuring people of all sizes — also benefits mothers and daughters alike. For some women, unlearning diet culture and fatphobia might take serious work, and may require the help of a professional therapist. The good news is that by becoming more body confident, mothers can help their daughters to do the same.
Woman feeding child
Photo by Tanaphong Toochinda via Unsplash
Filed under Society and Politics
By Jillian Bell
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