Ana Carolina Reston, Pro-Ana Web sites a sign that we have all failed our girls
It is clear that the Western world has failed its young girls. In Brazil, there is the story of Ana Carolina Reston, a fashion model who died at age 21, with less than 90 pounds covering her 5′ 10″ frame.
Reston, like many other women before her, died due to anorexia, and due to a media perception gone insane, and due to ordinary people being unwilling to tell their young girls that the way women are portrayed in newspapers and magazines is just bullshit. Reston was one of those women, and died because her mind got twisted trying to remain one of them.
“Take care of your children … no money is worth the life of your child, not even the most famous (fashion) brand is worth this,” her mother, Miriam Reston said afterward.
But children like Reston are not being taken care of, and with the help of the Internet, they are finding group support to try to achieve bodies that can’t coexist with nature, or life.
There is X3Thinspiration’s Web site, which is run by a young girl named Jordan, and is presented with the words “Your Skin and Bones turn into something beautiful.”
There is BonesareBeautyxX’s site, which has these words as a mantra:
“One day I will be thin enough. Just the bones, no disfiguring flesh. Just the pure clear shape of me, bones. That is what we all are, what we’re made up of and everything else is just storage, deposit, waste. Strip it away, use it up”
Like many other things we consider fringe, the pro-anorexia, pro-eating-disorder world is quite busy on the Internet. The term “pro-ana” (pro-anorexia) will get you about 750,000 hits on a Google search, led by the Pro-Ana Nation Web site.
From the girl who started Pro-Ana Nation:
I wanted to be the perfect little girl in the perfect American world.
It was easy to hide my eating disorder, at least for a couple of years. Time went by and I slowly managed to reach my goal weight, 95 lbs, which was not bad, considering I am 5’7”.
Everything was great until my family pressured me to get medical attention. I was hospitalized and tube fed. It was hell.During my recovery, I lost control because of the medication I was taking, and I quickly gained weight. I felt lonely, fat and depressed. I need to be be skinny, I need control, so anorexia has become a part of my life.. again.
I have always had a little dictator inside me, forcing me to continue this path and never be satisfied with myself. Ana keeps reminding me that I will never be good enough, not until I am light as air.
Her words are haunting, and even more so when you realize how many girls there are like her out there. Because of the media. Because of communities. Because of parents. We have all failed them. We have allowed young girls to become warped, as they are endlessly assaulted by images of women who are not real. The media has run wild, and we have let them, and we have set a trap for a generation of young girls who will never be able to see themselves as good enough.
An eating disorder is not a lifestyle choice. Starving yourself is a sickness. And for our girls, it is a sickness we’ve allowed them, even pushed them to attain. We have created a generation of girls who want to be light as air. And like Reston, they are succeeding.
There are places on the Internet where you can find information of you have a friend or loved one with an eating disorder, like Something Fishy, which is full of information, links and resources.
At very least, we owe this to the young girls in our lives: let them know they are beautiful as they are, and that the images they see on TV and in magazines are just that, images. Actresses and models are not reality, they are.
We have failed our girls. And we need to start making things right again.
–WKW
December 11th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Seriously. What is wrong with that ghoul at the top of this page? I’m more likely to whip out a cross and make a turn attempt than acknowledge that it’s a human being.
Are people this insane? Does no one think for themselves anymore?
At this point, all facets of compassion have left me. If these girls want to starve themselves to death, and resist/refuse constant attempts to help them, let em.
If idiots want to proliferate information and tips to indoctrinate other idiots, thats Darwinism at work.
If you cant survive in this world, even with the help of your peers, you just werent meant to be in it. At least their short lives wont waste much of the natural resources intended for those who use them responsibly, eh?
January 29th, 2007 at 9:21 am
[…] Many were touched by Carpenters’ death, with many seeing the dangers of anorexia first hand. These days, the lesson of Carpenter has been forgotten, as stars like Nicole Richie opt for a skeletal look that can only be achieved by abusing oneself. […]
April 7th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
ok i think this is one of the stupidest things ok if u HAVE to be a certain weight to be a model wat is the point like every model looks like that now it is stupid for ppl to say U HAVE TO BE THIS WEIGHT OR UR GONE cuz when they reach that weight that look like SHIT look at her she should not be a model no one wants too look at that no one can look at her and say thats pretty thats DISCUSTING!
April 7th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Amanda,
Thanks for the comment. And you know, a lot of these girls are not much older than you, if at all. And you know how tough it is to fit in normally. Imagine trying to do so when people are demanding you have to be sickly thin, or else you won’t get that job, or your photo on the cover of a magazine.
I feel bad for these girls, because it has to be hard being under so much pressure. But it’s girls like you that need to make the point you did - it’s stupid for girls to have to look unnatural to be a model, or an actress, etc.
Because then girls that don’t even want to be models think that’s what they HAVE to look like to be pretty, and you and I and many others know that’s just not true. Let’s keep telling everyone that, ok? Eventually the model agencies and movie stars will listen.
Thanks again for the comment.
–WKW
April 14th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I think that the fashion industry is crazy when they critize models weights like on The Agency and America’s Next Top Model. They should make the BPI of 18 rule like Madrid did. These models are way to skinny and they look horrible and emaciated!!! They are pressured into purging and being anorexic or bulimic so that they can make it sucessfully as a model.. They look gross.. people with the disease need medical and physcological help immeadiatley!!! It is creepy and VERY noticable.. accept yourself for who you are! NOBODY is perfect…
April 15th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
The photo above is frightening to say the least. Yes, some of the models (both male and female) and actresses like Kate Bosworth, Nichole Richie, Victoria Beckham tell us with actions and photos that to be beautiful you must be small. But if you were happy with yourself to begin with, the fight to be as you are might be easier to win. Stay healthy, work out, enjoy life, but enjoy it. After reading articles of models (including two sisters) who have died to stay thin, their plight was sad and dismal and very lonely. That is not enjoying life. I want to cry at the idea that there are places in the world that promote illnesses like anorexia and bulimia. God made everyone different for a reason. He loves variety. These girls who died never got to live and scares the shit out of me. To have a child, especially a daughter, in this day and age…you can only hope that you taught her well enough to love herself and embrace her differences. Look at Queen Latifa, Kate Winslet, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy, Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson, and Lindsay Lohan–these women accept who they are and how they look. These women are role models. Love yourself for who you are and love life, don’t love an image that is unhealthy and a sure way to horrible health.
April 17th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I’m a boy aged 15 with a girlfriend also aged 15 who is going through a rather terrifying case of Anorexia as i write this..
Even beofre i met her i was horrified by the size and shape of the models and ‘fashion icons’ i saw on TV and in magazines, so when i found out the news that somebody who i loved and cared for was becoming one of these people i felt physically sick.
Anorexia and Bulimia are things that you hear about almost every day, and constant complaints of ‘Oh my god, i look so fat!’ are heard almost every five seconds. I was disgusted to hear a female friend of mine who is a size 6, 15 years old and 5ft 4in tell me she was going on a diet to try and drop a dress size because she’s recently been to a fashion show and wished one day she could look as beautiful as the models did..
That for me gave me a mixture of two emotions, i wanted to hit her for being so stupid, but cry for her for being so blind. I don’t see why young girls think being so skinny means they’re beautiful. So many girls are taking on their independance streaks and claiming they want to be individual, yet they are copying the stick thin look of catwalkers in an attempt to be something they’re not.
Anorexia and Bulimia cause alot more problems than gains, the only person who really feels better about themselves is the person doing it, whereas anybody close to them are left feeling hurt and helpless.
Natural beauty is better than anything else in the world and being confident in your own skin is far more attractive then starving yourself ’til make your ribs poke out and skin droops, no matter what anyone else says.
April 17th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
wow. is all i can say really
this really makes me feel sick
i am 17 right and uk size 10 and i am healthy and able
what the hell are these people thinking i feel so sorry for them i mean … how do they hold themselves up!
my friends sister has anorexia and just the site of her makes me feel il and she has clothes on
these people need so much help and they just get applauded for fitting the regime sort of thing its rediculous
i go into shops now and its hard to find my size cos everything is 6 and 8 and stuff its like wtf i am normal sized
people need to realise that they are just damaging themselves but once its in thier head they dont realise what they are doing, and all that pressurer must just make them want to explode.
i am very interested in the fashion industry and have even considered entering it as a makeup artist but if that meant staring at girls like that everyday i dont think i could do it.
im all for havin thin girls to model thier clothes but come on, there is a line and recently it has been crossed just a few to many times.
.rant over.
April 21st, 2007 at 1:57 am
I do have an eating disorder website and it’s really hard to explain myself I feel like I’m fat and I need to lose weight and I only put the pro ana rules on myself I’d never do it to someone else but then I found these sites 6yrs ago and I realised (unfortunately) cruelly people felt just like me I wish noone did but the reality is other people think like me I feel less like a freak having known people like me I know that doesn’t make it ok but it’s better than being alone. I do not condone starvation and will not hand out tips to what we call ‘wannabaes’. I’m sorry if this is offensive but having people like me in contact with me makes it easier to live, loneliness too is a killer.
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:06 am
Dear Katt,
I’m sorry if you find this offensive, but the ONLY was you will find it easier to live is if you seek help for your sickness. You say that loneliness is a killer, but in the long run the only thing killing you is yourself, and your choice to be pro anorexic.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
dear Bek
I agree with you but when you have anorexia and you have failed to get well so often- I can put on weight but my thoughts have never changed enough, so I’m not pro ana but living with ana If I had a choice I’d have no eating disorder but with my rampant thoughts it’s easier to live by ana than eat normALLy and suffer even more or become bulimic which has happened to me many times during trying to recover, I’ve been in and out of therapy for 12 years.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
sorry me again to put it in perspective in NZ where I live there are 8 acute eating disorders beds in one specilaist hospital in a country of 4 million they don’t take people like me who are chronic.
April 26th, 2007 at 10:13 am
So touched that you used my website in your article, but all your doing is giving us anas the attention that we thrive on.. everytime people post something about pro ana and all that it makes me happy because my site will just get more popular and get more hits and that makes me happy if the girls who come there need help. Its not like you choose to have the disease, but if you have it you feel SO alone and all you want to do is discuss. no one can heal an eating disorder, but if i can help girls like me feel better and not be as unhappy then it makes me feel good. i searched up my site x3thinspiration on google and it showed me this article so what happens when other girls search up something regarding this? they go to the website. they read my tips and see my thinspo. theyre exposed. and i just might have sold anorexia to one more person. all these pro ana things might just do more harm then good.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
This pic of ana carolina brought me to tears because i cannot believe people around her let her body get to this state!WHO TOOK THIS PHOTO??who thought it was right to put her in that photograph as a model?she should of been in hospital!what are these photographers thinking?
I think we are forgetting that these are Psychological diseases that take hold of the mind. It is ok to try and hide from the media, but once these young girls have been consumed by Anorexia or Bulimia, it is hard to escape their own minds. I think it stops becoming a target weight of what they want to be..it becomes addictive and routine and habit. Only two days ago Victoria Beckham stated carbs were her enemy.
Its so terrifying that these are even issues in todays society, there are people starving out of no choice of their own. Malnutritioned because they do not have the money to feed themselves..we have countries starving, and models choosing not to eat. We need to make sure our children, girls AND boys have a healthy attitude towards food and exercise.No starving or over eating…ALSO FOR JORDAN “YOU YOURSELF ARE ADMITTING THAT YOU MAY BE DOING HARM AND SO INSIDE YOU MUST KNOW THAT IT IS NOT RIGHT TO STARVE YOUR BODY..SO WHY WOULD YOU WANT PEOPLE TO MAKE THIS SITE AVAILABLE TO VICTIMS.AND HAVE OTHER YOUNG GIRLS FEEL ‘SO ALONE’ AS YOU DO?surely if they do not have forums to go to they may turn to a doctor?
April 29th, 2007 at 7:06 am
and it’s not only the media, the models and popstars who let girls from my age starve themselves. I know girls who are boulimic or anorexic.. Most of them have the sickness because their most closest relatives say they’re too fat and ugly and that they won’t be able to find a boyfriend because they look so disgustingly fat.. Gouverments should work on this too. It certainly isn’t only because of the thinspiration you see in magazines and on catwalks that there are so many girls starving themselves…..
It’s a really good text! Well written and I totally agree!
April 29th, 2007 at 7:47 am
[…] A while back, I wrote a post titled “Ana Carolina Reston, Pro-Ana Web sites a sign that we have all failed our girls” that looked into the frightening phenomenon of teen girls running running pro-anorexia (pro-ana) Web sites, and of how the body image issues many girls around the globe deal with are a fault of society. At very least, we owe this to the young girls in our lives: let them know they are beautiful as they are, and that the images they see on TV and in magazines are just that, images. Actresses and models are not reality, they are. […]
April 29th, 2007 at 7:58 am
For those of you who have left comments - and I appreciate your comments regardless of your views - I created a new post, highlighting some of them, as I felt readers would benefit from them.
Again, thanks for the comments and I’m glad to see this issue be discussed, especially by younger people. This is an issue that people need to talk about maturely, and you all are leading the way.
–WKW
May 6th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
hello, im a psychology student and i can see that obviously these anorexic girls are crying for help.
they recognise that they are their own enemies and that they cannot fight their mind and their thoughts, thats why they can go on treatments to put on weight and a few months later the are with anorexia again.
We should support them, provide them help.. these girls are sick. For me the media, fashion industry promoting thiness as successful or a sinonym of beauty is underestimating the ability of self validation. and the sad thing is that we are falling into their trap as we think that xtreme skinny celebs look great. Few years ago women were not allowed to vote, their intelligence was not recognised and now that we are we should prove a point of being able to have a high self esteem by being the wonderful beings we are. No one should need validation from other people, orindustries with no heart or common sense, to feel intelligent, beautiful and loved.
For those anorexic girls out there, validade yourselves through your creativity, for your ability to love and for and for our body. Prove everybody else that you are worthy of being loved for who you are. U can never please everyone so this constant run towards their concept of perfection will never reach its end because when you lose all that weight you will feel alone and descriminated for being so thin.
Please open your mind to a new world and help us revert this ludacris society!!
May 6th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Wow! this really hits home! I am 19, I work in a candy store with all girls but it is the land of eating disorders!! Every girl that works there has some form of eating disorder to some extent some worse than others. One of whom weighs 91 lbs this summer decided she wanted to lose 15 lbs. because she heard that in the first year of college you gain the “freshman fifteen” she got down to 87 lbs. before I was able to get a hold of her mother, who immediately talked to her she is now back to 91 lbs, but still wants to lose weight and says that if she ever reached 100 lbs she’d stop eating entirely, right now when she does eat it will take her hours to finish a taco. I don’t understand why the public needs to show women with stick figures walking around!! It makes me sick to think that if I one day have a daughter she sill see the same things and think like my good friend. I hope that more people see this and are as effected by it as I was!
May 8th, 2007 at 10:33 am
I don’t understand why you think that the picture in the beginning of this article is not normal. I think she looks ok. ofcourse she would look better if she gained a few pounds..but still. It’s everyone’s own business what they decide to do with their bodies. I think that obease people are much harder to look at than those who are skinny. Skinny people are pretty! why else are they on the cover of every magazine.I think that criticizeing people because they are too skinny is wrong.. they have worked hard to achieve their looks.. I think that overweight people should be criticized for their laziness. if i would be strong enough to drop weight by becoming an anorectic i would do it. I did try to loose weigt by diets but i couldn’t do it… i was a bulimic and it worked,but my sister found out and started telling my friends. i was embarassed and had to stop…but still..people are happy when they like the way they look..it doesn’t really matter what others say…especially when they are told that they are skinny enough or too skinny..it shows them that their eating disorder has payed off…ps!SKINNY PEOPLE ARE PRETTY.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Just wanted to say that people really SHOULD like the way they look, because they can`t change it - it`s like wanting to have green eyes when you have brown. I know it`s not proper to say that, but still - damn you people with all those diets and losing weight, and loving skinny people - there are people who starve every day, because they don`t have anything to eat and we don`t help them!
I used to be 90 lbs (I was 5′5′’)three years ago and back then I didn`t think I was beautiful or skinny enough… I had to visit shrinks to realize it was all bullshit, I wasn`t pretty, nor are those anorexic girls, just try to help them, before it`s too late!!
May 25th, 2007 at 3:02 am
oh my god i hate the pressure these girls must be getting put under ! it knocks me blummin sick ! theres not need to be that skinny at all ! we know that bieng a size zero is completely wrong and were only 11 ! wen we r older we want to be a size 10 or above! bieng less than that is completely atrocious !
May 30th, 2007 at 3:34 am
I am naturally really skinny. I have a HUGE metabolism and no matter what i do, i just can’t gain any weight. I’m about a size 6-if they have any. Since i am this unnaturally skinny and i also do ballet-most people just assume that i have an eating disorder…don’t worry-i don’t look like these disgusting models…but i do get a little offended when people call me anorexic. Because i know that being anorexic is dangerous and stupid and i would NEVER do such a thing, why do people assume that i am that dumb to turn anorxic just because i am thin? I have never wanted to looses weight and i love my body…why can’t we just accpet our bodies and be happy with what God has given us??
May 30th, 2007 at 8:58 am
i’m doing a speech in english class on this topic. its called ‘THE NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES PLACED IN THE FASHION INDUSRTY’
i came across this site and i decided to chat to whoever’s readin this…
so listen carefully..
WE ARE ALL UNIQUE. EVEN TWINS HAVE DIFFERENT TRAITS AND CHARACTARISTICS…THERE ARE BLACK PPL, WHITE PPL, YELLOW PPL, CHINESE PPL, INDIAN PPL, FAT PPL, SKINNY PPL, AVERAGE PPL, THICK PPL, TALL, SHORT, ETC.
and that’s what makes the world interesting…if we were all meant to look the same then that’s how our creator (not necessarily God, but whoever u belive in) would have made us
and to tell you the truth….. i’m put off by this whole fashion and modeling thing now because you know what, ITS BLOODY RETARDED and BORING
HOW ABOUT YOU MODEL “NORMAL PPL”; eh?
STOP PROMOTING SKELETONS….WE’RE NOT DEAD- yet.
June 5th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I think that people with eating disorders should seriously stop what they are doing and think about all the things they are throwing away by doing this. Most of the girls with anexoria and skinny enough as it is . I think all girls should just accept how they are because they are not going to fix it by straving themselves, it is just going to make everything worse. Your family and friends will constenly be worrying about you. You are only hurting yourself by doing this. Your not helping anyone.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
THERSE PICTURES ARE NOT REAL..
June 17th, 2007 at 2:20 am
course the pictures are real!!!!!
and if it was as easy as deciding not to have an ed no one would have one.
it’s personal preference, I hate fat and i hate being more than 38kg
June 20th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I 100% do NOT agree with what Olivia had to say. I am anorexic, and it isn’t that easy to just “stop and think” about what we are doing. We ALL realize what is going on around us, and if we had a choice, we WOULDN’T be anorexic. And please, don’t claim we have a choice. Anorexia is an addiction.. I wish it was as easy as non-anorexics say it is to become normal again, but it really truly isn’t.
June 21st, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Hi
this is so worng but some ppl can’t help it cus it became an obsession.God Be with them.
PS: Family & good friends can help!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:15 am
I support Megan, hey megan just to let you know I know how you feel how tough it is to kick, take lotsa care no matter what
July 4th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I’m anorexic because I hate the way magazines like FHM objectify women. I don’t want to be a sex object. Being anorexic means I have almost no breasts and no hips or butt. It is great cos I get treated like a human being instead of a potential lay.
July 4th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I will happily gain weight once the world starts treating women with respect.
July 7th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Hi, I’m thirteen years old and reading this I realized something. Everyone is out there speaking about how girls are dying and how pro ana and the internet is telling young girls its okay to be Anorexic. Well if everything is really getting that bad, why doesnt someone end it? Block the websites. Force people, even people over eighteen, into a rehabilitation center? I have been both Anorexic and Bulimic and yes I’m only thirteen. My parents sent me to therapy but they never saw me as big as a threat as my bulimic 17, now 18, year old sister. It was because they didnt take me to the doctor they didnt realize I was more than 20 pounds underweight. They were so caught up in my sister ‘fixing’ her to realize I was a greater threat. Anoerixa is a worse case than Bulimia because in Bulimia you get some food and some nutrition but none in Anorexia. My parents only knew of my bulimia and they thought they had caught it early and I would be alright. I was getting better until therapy then I relapsed and stopped eating once again. My point is people cant just write articles on this, it isnt going to change anything. You cant make one action then stop thinking ‘Well I did something like that kid told me to now everything is really going to be better’ This is coming from someone who has gone through two eating disorders. If your going to type acticles and judge us atleast do something about it force people with eating disorders into rehab talk to them start a group therapy for them. All I’m saying is if your just all talk and no action shut up and let us starve in peace. Thank you. Oh and by the way I’m not meaning to come off as a jerk I’m just a very strong headed opinionated person.
July 13th, 2007 at 1:38 am
sorry. the girl on the front page is just way too skinny. i have been told that i needed to lose weight by family members and i told them i like the way i look. i am 5′6 and weigh about 165. i am not fat, i just have a lot of curves
July 29th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
mississippigirl87 Says:
July 13th, 2007 at 1:38 am
sorry. the girl on the front page is just way too skinny.
But that is not what we see. We see fat, lots of it. And you know what I truly believe? Girls saying they have curves is just an excuse to explain the numerous rolls hanging from their midsection. It seriously makes me want to puke. Or take some diuretics. Either way.
At one point, I was 5′10″ and weighed 187#(Pre-ana, obviously)! I was an f-ing COW! And I’ll admit it, I was disgusting.. and happy. I didn’t realize how gross I looked, and I STILL had a good time, I loved my life. But if I wouldn’t have become anorexic I would have been just as worse off as I would have been obese. Both have SERIOUS health problems related to them, but I would rather be a “skeleton” (extremely fat in my eyes) then be a giant piece of lard getting pushed around in a wheel chair at age 35.
I have NEVER and will NEVER tell anyone to become anorexic, it’s a hell you can’t escape. Just please be healthy and take your vitamins. And don’t go to far, or you end up like the rest of us, and we don’t need anymore ana groupies.
July 29th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
katt your the sweetest