| These days, many teenage girls express dissatisfaction with their bodies. According to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc., one in 100 teenage girls between the ages of 10 and 20 have anorexia. And according to the CDC's 2007 Youth Risk Behaviors survey, more than 53 percent of female students surveyed had eaten less food to lose weight in the past 30 days, 7.5 percent of girls reported taking diet pills and 6.4 percent reported vomiting or taking laxatives to lose weight. And the obsession with weight starts early the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) reports that 42 percent of first- to third-grade girls want to be thinner, and 82 percent of 10-year-olds are afraid of getting fat. Many teenage girls strive to look like fashion models, but the NEDA reports that most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of the population. This preoccupation with appearance and weight can become extreme and develop into an eating disorder. An eating disorder is a serious mental illness during which a person takes drastic measures to control his or her weight. Although the popular press paints eating disorders as affecting only girls, they can also affect boys, with the same devastating consequences. |
