PAWLING TEEN LIFTS WITH A PURPOSE
“My main focus is fitness” says young bodybuilder Zoe Huff, who also hopes to mentor girls on healthy eating and life choices.
The Pawling teen graduated from the Oakwood Friends School on June 10, in Poughkeepsie. This fall, she will be going to Syracuse University, majoring in exercise science and psychology.
“For my age and gender, I am following a different path,” says Huff. “You are
way more likely to see an 18-year-old boy training to be in a bodybuilding competition. It takes a lot of discipline and commitment, and most girls my age are not that committed to this pursuit.”
Huff has been interested in physique and fitness since her 8th grade.“I read then that Beyoncé was doing 1000 crunches per day,” remembers Huff. “So I started an exercise regime with a friend, doing the crunches together via Skype.”
“I got up at 5 AM, ran a mile, came back and did calisthenics” she said. “I gradually discovered the importance of nutrition. I came to realize that I can make myself look as good or as bad as I want to feel. The way I look and feel in my body is subject to my manipulation.”
Her late father’s battle with type I diabetes figured also in her own health consciousness. He cooked well-balanced meals and was very supportive of her interest in health and nutrition. He was a high school athlete like her.
But his diabetes also created a challenge for her childhood insofar as “the diabetes, the reactions and the unpredictability of it all.”
There were also societal gender issues at play:
“I know that in high school there can be a lot of pressure to look a certain way,” Huff says. “And I get that because I definitely went through that, trying to be thin and having a small waist.”
“It’s not fun,” she relates.
“I have real empathy for people with eating disorders,” says Huff. “I hope to study this in college with my psychology education. Mind and body are connected.”
“I see myself also getting a nutrition certificate or degree,” she says. “Then I can construct meal plans and help those I mentor to first start with diet, and thereafter begin the exercise program.” “You really can’t have one without the other,” she says.
Huff moved to Pawling in 8th grade, shortly after her parents’ divorce. “It’s a small village where everyone knows each other, which is kind of nice, “she says.
But Huff has global perspectives. She spent three weeks in Hawaii as an eight-month-old infant, a trip she laughingly says she has to do over to appreciate. She has traveled most every year since. Destinations have included places in Asia, Australia and Europe.
“I like exploring other cultures… it’s eye-opening…there’s a whole other world going on out there, “she says.
Huff went to two other high schools, one private and one parochial, before enrolling at Oakwood Friends in her junior year.
“I ended up really liking it mostly for the diverse and accepting culture,” she says. “I’ve never been at a school where people don’t judge you. To me, this is amazing because we live in such a judgmental world.”
Huff continues, “it’s like living in a nurturing bubble here. Everyone cares about one another. It doesn’t matter what race you are. It’s almost like you get away without having to be in a judgmental environment. That’s something that helps to form good people at a young age.”
Huff waxed philosophical and purposeful when asked about the future: “The future is mine. I can do anything I want to.”
“I like to be in control of things I do,” she says. “So now, I can make what I always wanted to happen or I can squander the moment. I’ve been waiting a long time for that kind of independence–I find independence really exciting.”
Oakwood Friends School, founded in 1796, is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school serving grades 6-12. Guided by Quaker values, Oakwood Friends educates and strengthens young people for lives of conscience, compassion and accomplishment. It fosters a diverse community of students and staff in an atmosphere of mutual respect and enrichment, sensitive to the world and its needs.
