Deenie's mom gets fed up with all the comments on Deenie's posture and takes her to their family doctor. After some annoying tests their doctor recommends a scoliosis specialist. You see, all of Deenie's walking and posture problems are because Deenie has adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Deenie has to have surgery or get a back brace (depending on the severity of the curve of her spine) because "If the curve isn't corrected, it will result in a spinal deformity" (p.51-52). Deenie has to learn to live with her back problem. She feels awkward at first because she thinks that everyone will make fun of her. But no one does. They all accept her.
We can see that Deenie really grows up because she has scoliosis. She knows this girl that got hit by a car when she was little and now she can't walk. That girl has to be in the disabled classroom in their school. At first, whenever Deenie walked by it she wouldn't look at the room because she was afraid that she would see that girl. We notice that Deenie was kind of afraid of disabled people, but when she realized that she was kind of disabled too, she was not afraid any more.
This is a really great example of a girl who is strong. She learns to overcome her disability. Anyone can gain some self confidence from reading this book.