COURTNEY E. MARTIN is the author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body (Free Press). She is currently assisting Marvelyn S. Brown, a twenty-three-year-old AIDS activist, with her memoir, to be published later this year. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The Jar Of Coins

by Courtney E. Martin, March 2008 (Issue 387)