The Definition of Beautiful Audiobook By Charlotte Bellows cover art

The Definition of Beautiful

A Memoir

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Definition of Beautiful

By: Charlotte Bellows
Narrated by: Charlotte Bellows
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.18

Buy for $21.18

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

A stunning memoir of coming of age and recovering from anorexia in the 2020s.

Charlotte Bellows wrote The Definition of Beautiful between the ages of 15 and 17, in the wake of lockdown and in recovery from anorexia. In the tradition of Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar and Françoise Sagan in Bonjour Tristesse, Bellows writes with deceptively straightforward urgency, pushing through society's constraints on the bodies and minds of girls and women to offer a story both achingly familiar and devastatingly new.

In 2020, 14-year-old Charlotte's lifelong drive to achieve 'perfection' distorts into an all-encompassing obsession. Living between the suffocating world of lockdown and an uncanny dreamscape inhabited by competing avatars, Charlotte faces a parade of masked faces in hospital rooms, the aftermath of first love, the erosion of lifelong friendship, and the agony of seeing her illness devastate her family as it threatens to destroy her; as the world reopens, she finds new connections and mentors, new joy, new ways of thinking, new ways to be.

Charlotte Bellows offers a potent fusion of insight and innocence—a story for those who suffer or have suffered from eating disorders, but, more, a vital coming of age story of a young gay and artistic woman, tugged and throttled by a myriad of pressures, not least from the dark gravity that is the underside of her own creative drive.

©2023 Charlotte Bellows (P)2024 Audible, Inc.
Biographies & Memoirs Eating Disorders Mental Health Personal Development Psychology & Mental Health Memoir

Listeners also enjoyed...

Before We Were Blue Audiobook By E.J. Schwartz cover art
Before We Were Blue By: E.J. Schwartz
Bones Audiobook By Robyn Shumer, Natasha Stoynoff cover art
Bones By: Robyn Shumer, and others
The Girls at 17 Swann Street Audiobook By Yara Zgheib cover art
The Girls at 17 Swann Street By: Yara Zgheib
thinandbeautiful.com Audiobook By Liane Shaw cover art
thinandbeautiful.com By: Liane Shaw
The Skinny Audiobook By Sheri Segal Glick cover art
The Skinny By: Sheri Segal Glick
Empty Audiobook By Susan Burton cover art
Empty By: Susan Burton
Outofshapeworthlessloser Audiobook By Gracie Gold cover art
Outofshapeworthlessloser By: Gracie Gold
Good Girls Audiobook By Hadley Freeman cover art
Good Girls By: Hadley Freeman
The Weight of Beautiful Audiobook By Jackie Goldschneider cover art
The Weight of Beautiful By: Jackie Goldschneider
Thin Girls Audiobook By Diana Clarke cover art
Thin Girls By: Diana Clarke
Elena Vanishing Audiobook By Elena Dunkle, Clare B. Dunkle cover art
Elena Vanishing By: Elena Dunkle, and others
Frighten the Horses Audiobook By Oliver Radclyffe cover art
Frighten the Horses By: Oliver Radclyffe
Wintergirls Audiobook By Laurie Halse Anderson cover art
Wintergirls By: Laurie Halse Anderson
An Apple a Day Audiobook By Emma Woolf cover art
An Apple a Day By: Emma Woolf
The Year I Didn't Eat Audiobook By Samuel Pollen cover art
The Year I Didn't Eat By: Samuel Pollen
Emilee Audiobook By Linda Mazur, John Mazur, Emilee Mazur cover art
Emilee By: Linda Mazur, and others
The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting Audiobook By Evanna Lynch cover art
The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting By: Evanna Lynch
The Predatory Lies of Anorexia Audiobook By Abby D. Kelly cover art
The Predatory Lies of Anorexia By: Abby D. Kelly
Unbearable Lightness Audiobook By Portia de Rossi cover art
Unbearable Lightness By: Portia de Rossi
More, Please Audiobook By Emma Specter cover art
More, Please By: Emma Specter

People who viewed this also viewed...

Bones Audiobook By Robyn Shumer, Natasha Stoynoff cover art
Bones By: Robyn Shumer, and others
Before We Were Blue Audiobook By E.J. Schwartz cover art
Before We Were Blue By: E.J. Schwartz
The Only Way Through Is Out Audiobook By Suzette Mullen cover art
The Only Way Through Is Out By: Suzette Mullen
Farewell Yellow Brick Road Audiobook By Elton John, David Furnish - foreword cover art
Farewell Yellow Brick Road By: Elton John, and others
Frighten the Horses Audiobook By Oliver Radclyffe cover art
Frighten the Horses By: Oliver Radclyffe
The Weight of Beautiful Audiobook By Jackie Goldschneider cover art
The Weight of Beautiful By: Jackie Goldschneider
thinandbeautiful.com Audiobook By Liane Shaw cover art
thinandbeautiful.com By: Liane Shaw
No Son of Mine Audiobook By Jonathan Corcoran cover art
No Son of Mine By: Jonathan Corcoran
A Cup of Water Under My Bed Audiobook By Daisy Hernández cover art
A Cup of Water Under My Bed By: Daisy Hernández
Letting Ana Go Audiobook By Anonymous cover art
Letting Ana Go By: Anonymous
The Skinny Audiobook By Sheri Segal Glick cover art
The Skinny By: Sheri Segal Glick
Pack Light Audiobook By Shilletha Curtis cover art
Pack Light By: Shilletha Curtis
Thin Girls Audiobook By Diana Clarke cover art
Thin Girls By: Diana Clarke
Hungry for Life Audiobook By Rachel Richards cover art
Hungry for Life By: Rachel Richards
An Apple a Day Audiobook By Emma Woolf cover art
An Apple a Day By: Emma Woolf
Some Strange Music Draws Me In Audiobook By Griffin Hansbury cover art
Some Strange Music Draws Me In By: Griffin Hansbury
Looking for Group Audiobook By Alexis Hall cover art
Looking for Group By: Alexis Hall
Elena Vanishing Audiobook By Elena Dunkle, Clare B. Dunkle cover art
Elena Vanishing By: Elena Dunkle, and others
Most relevant  
Thank you for writing this book. Your story brought me a better understanding of the inner workings of a young female with an eating disorder. Your battle described through characters in The Deep helped me gain a healthier perspective on the illness. I listened to your book from the depths of my own heartbreak looking for answers to my 13 yo daughter's ed. Your words and voice broke my heart and brought me comfort and now a part of our journey. I'll never forget you or your story.

Honest, beautiful body of work

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Truly a gorgeous work. The depth of realms the author takes you into were haunting but so beautiful. This was not what I was expecting for a memoir on such a topic of eating disorders. 10 out of 10!

Just so beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I wanted to like this but it was hard to follow and the narration made it even harder to concentrate with a rather flat tone. Props to this young lady for writing a book so young but informed the delivery and the fantasy bits lost me and made the story hard to follow

Sadly I was disappointed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Redundant ,boring and puerile, but maybe a good book for adolescents who are struggling with eating disorders.

Puerile

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.