But it's really tough to accept your body in a culture where thin is in. Once, being portly was a sign of success. Open any magazine, surf any Web site, watch any channel on TV and you see them, the impossibly perfect, waif-like, transparent, bony models. They have the boyfriends and the glamorous jobs. Sara Shandler discovered that teens don't know what to do with their need to be thin.
Healthy girls are sometimes secretly jealous of a friend with anorexia.
Other girls don't know how to stop throwing up. Researchers have found that more than half of all teens are dissatisfied with their bodies, and two-thirds of teen girls have been on diets, many as early as age 13. Up to five percent of those diets get out of hand. It's estimated that six percent of serious cases die. You Take Growing up isn't easy.