How to Write an Article About Older Women With Eating Disorders for The New York Times

by L.V. Anderson

Would you like to write an article for The New York Times Health section about older women with eating disorders? (“It’s only my lifelong dream,” you murmur.) Unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to do it this year, since the Times just ran a story this week about older women with eating disorders (or OWED — which, if it’s not already an niche-marketing acronym, probably will be soon). The good news is that the Times also ran an OWED story in 2009 and an earlier one in 2004. Which means that you can probably start submitting your very own OWED story in 18 months or so.

Since you’ll want your older-women-with-eating-disorders story to be the very best it can be, you might want to take a look at the three OWED stories the Times has run in the past seven years to see what made them so successful. Here are a few tips based on common threads in the Times’s past coverage of this pressing issue.

1. Draw readers in with a forceful headline

2004: “Older Women, Too, Struggle With a Dangerous Secret”

2009: “When Eating Disorders Strike in Midlife”

2011: “An Older Generation Falls Prey to Eating Disorders”

Struggling, being struck, falling prey. You always want to try to keep things pithy and intriguing in a headline, but with an OWED story, you also want to use vaguely violent imagery. And be sure to cast women in a passive role — readers love that! Here are a few suggestions for the older-women-with-eating-disorders trend piece you pitch to the Times in 2013:

-”Older Women Eviscerated by Eating Disorders”
-”Anorexia and Bulimia Hunt Down and Brutally Assault Older Women”
-”A New Blitzkrieg for Grandma: Eating Disorders”

2. Have three names

2004: By Bonnie Rothman Morris

2009: By Randi Hutter Epstein

2011: By Tara Parker-Pope

Don’t have three names? I’m really sorry. Maybe you can write an article about sexting, instead.

3. Include invasive personal details about sources

2004: “[B]y 1997, what Mrs. Varecka was hiding was plain to see: At 5 feet 7 inches, she weighed 94 pounds.”

2009: “Ms. Hodgin would not eat more than 200 calories a meal, and if she did, she made herself vomit.”

2011: “At 53, carrying just 85 pounds on her 5-foot-3 frame, Ms. Shaw checked herself in to an eating disorders program.”

Ah, that’s the stuff! None of this genteel “underweight” or “thin as a rail” bullshit. Readers want humiliatingly specific facts about older women with eating disorders, so make sure you mention at least one of the following: weight, body mass index, or daily caloric intake. Bonus points for mentioning all three!

4. Include helpful definitions for people who don’t know what eating disorders are

2004: “Anorexics severely restrict their calories. Bulimics binge and then purge, either by vomiting or by taking laxatives.”

2009: “[E]xperts say that in the past 10 years they are treating an increasing number of women over 30 who are starving themselves, abusing laxatives, exercising to dangerous extremes and engaging in all of the self-destructive activities that had, for so long, been considered teenage behaviors.”

2011: “Younger or older, patients tend to engage in the same destructive behaviors: restricted eating, laxative abuse, excessive exercise and binge eating.”

Remember: Not everyone who reads articles like this knows what an eating disorder is, so don’t omit this crucial information — readers need to know the exact methods women use to get and stay so thin!

5. Subtly insinuate that eating disorders make women bad mothers

2004: “After Mrs. Varecka told her family that she was ill, she was in and out of an inpatient program near her home in suburban Minneapolis four times over the next two years. … ‘It’s a torment; it’s the devil,’ Ms. Varecka said. ‘Unfortunately, it affects other people in my life.’”

2009: “’But I’ve been able to see the damage I left in the wake of it, and I can’t bear to see what I’ve put my kids through,’ she said. ‘You can’t have an eating disorder and think it doesn’t affect your family.’”

2011: “For Ms. Shaw, diet and exercise overtook her life. She spent more and more hours at the gym — even on family vacations, when she would skip ski outings with her husband and sons in favor of workout time.”

Let’s just cut to the chase: No one really cares about older women except as relates to their role as mothers. So tell people what they really want to know: how will this affect the children?

6. Focus on emotions

2004: “’Women feel so invalid. They feel that they should grow up,’ said Dr. Margo Maine, an eating disorders expert in Hartford ….”

2009: “’I was very embarrassed and scared and humiliated and ashamed that I had lied about it,’ she said.”

2011: “’The weight of those emotions is what it was really all about.’”

Because ladies’ health problems usually stem from having too many feelings.

7. Keep it vague

2004: “No one knows how many older women have the disorders.”

2009: “No one has precise statistics on who is affected by eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia, often marked by severe weight loss, or binge eating, which can lead to obesity.”

2011: “Experts say that while eating disorders are first diagnosed mainly in young people, more and more women are showing up at their clinics in midlife or even older.”

Can’t find statistics to support your claims? That’s okay! Anecdotes are just as good — or even better, because no one can prove them wrong.

Finally, whatever you do, don’t for a second believe that the Times has already over-reported on older women with eating disorders. Stories about OWED follow in the tradition of hard-hitting journalism that earned the Times its reputation as the paper of record — and the Times will and should keep covering older women with eating disorders until Americans finally start paying attention to women’s eating habits and body sizes.

Previously: How to Upstage Your Friends at Their Weddings, I Mean How to Make a Wedding Cake.

L.V. Anderson lives in Brooklyn.

Photo via Flickr