I’m writing a story about a teenage girl struggling with Anorexia…when you think of the “[name]Ana[/name]” culture, what names come into mind?
[name]Ana[/name] reminds me of [name]Anastasia[/name].
Like the previous poster, I think of [name]Anastasia[/name]. I also think of Latin [name]America[/name], and Eastern Europe.
I think OP means the Ana culture, not the name [name]Ana[/name] itself for the character.
What age is your character? That’s usually a good place to start.
[name]Aubrey[/name]
[name]Rachel[/name]
[name]Danica[/name]
I’d imagine quite preppy, popular girls would be under pressure from their peers to be thin (think the main character’s ‘friends’ in Mean Girls), so I’d go with preppy, popular names - [name]Brittany[/name], [name]Fiona[/name], [name]Lauren[/name], [name]Chloe[/name], [name]Quinn[/name], [name]Brooke[/name], [name]Tallulah[/name], [name]Melissa[/name] all spring to mind.
Or conversely, the quiet, shy girl who gets called fat by the school bullies and so becomes anorexic to try and stop the taunts - [name]Grace[/name], [name]Frances[/name], [name]Emma[/name], [name]Maria[/name], [name]Zoe[/name], [name]Abigail[/name].
Anorexia is typically a middle class to upper middle class pursuit. It’s definitely white. {caveat, not all anorexic girls are white, it’s found in every ethnicity and culture on earth, blah blah blah}.
[name]Don[/name]'t give her a glamorous or ethereal-sounding name. This is a girl who is starving herself because she feels ugly, overlooked, imperfect and not special enough. She is a perfectionist and borderline obsessive. She is highly disciplined and highly competitive. She has almost no self-esteem and constantly criticizes and compares herself to others. She is anxious, phobic, cries frequently.
[name]Amanda[/name], [name]Becky[/name], [name]Taylor[/name], [name]Emily[/name], [name]Sarah[/name], [name]Katie[/name], [name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Molly[/name]. Nothing special, quietly middle class, and all very white.