Allie looks at herself in the mirror and is repulsed by her own reflection. Even though she has been dieting for the past three months – just eating one small meal a day and exercising for at least three hours – all she sees looking back at her is her own overweight and ugly image. She feels that at this rate she will never look like the girls in the magazines. She will be stuck the rest of her life as the unattractive girl who nobody will ever love. Allie doesn’t understand how her mom and her friends could possibly think that her weight is becoming dangerously low.  She honestly believes that she is fat, and is obsessed with achieving her ideal body. She just can’t seem to get there. Allie is 5’6” and weighs just under 100 pounds.

Allie is suffering from a serious and potentially deadly eating disorder known as Anorexia Nervosa. She rarely eats, and when she does it is only foods low in calories.  After eating, she will often “work-out” even more than usual to burn off her caloric intake. Her friends have noticed her drastic change in behavior – she has lately become moody and impulsive and has developed an obsession with her body image. Though they repeatedly try to tell her that she is not at all fat, her own self-perception is so distorted that she does not believe them. All Allie can think about is her body, and why it does not look like the beautiful people on the cover of fashion magazines. 

One evening while at working out, Allie collapses from dehydration and exhaustion. She is rushed to the emergency room. While Allie is in the hospital, her mother makes the decision to enter her into a recovery program for Anorexics. At first, Allie is furious; she still does not believe that she has a problem. After months of therapy and diet alteration, Allie is finally beginning to gain weight and accept her body as it is.  Allie is one of the select few who has made a recovery from a disease that destroys thousands of lives. Unfortunately, there are many more who are not so lucky. Anorexia is devastating both physically and mentally. It takes a huge amount of determination to overcome it.