Karen Carpenter

Karen Carpenter was one of the greatest musicians during the 70’s and 80’s. She was glamorous and loved by thousands of people...her music was so great that she held the record for the Top 5 hits in her first year of business. Although her life seemed so perfect always surrounded by people that admired her she lived a pressured life with a very low self-esteem which led her to a serious eating disorder, Anorexia. She started simple diets after her high school years because she was considered a chubby girl. Karen exercised at all times and went on a water diet, after Karen had lost about 20 pounds she started getting compliments about how great she looked. By then she had taken her diet to the extreme and always responded that the 20 pounds she had lost was only the beginning of her diet. Karen could not stop herself and kept on losing weight she became thinner and thinner, exhausted and so weak that she had to lay down and rest between her shows. Although she got help she never recovered and died at the age of 32 from emetine cardiotoxity due to or as a consequence of anorexia nervosa. Karen Carpenter is very important on the topic of eating disorders because she was the first person to be recognize as having anorexia...Before she died people knew about eating disorders but they were rarely spoken of it and anorexia did not even exist neither did treatments for it. The death of Karen Carpenter opened eyes to others that were suffering from eating disorders and did not know it. Many other artists also admitted to be dealing with the same problem. Karen Carpenter brought public interest in anorexia. Soon there were clinics specializing in eating disorders and treatments were developed.