Girls learn early on that being a woman means worrying about your weight. Unfortunately, she continues, just about the same time they become vulnerable to the messages about being thin, young girls' bodies naturally try to put on fat. As adolescents, they blossom out before they blossom up. To combat that, many girls will resort to dieting, bulimia or anorexia. Bulimia is a pattern of binge eating and vomiting.
Anorexic women refuse to eat much of anything, if at all.
In both cases, the girls become absolutely preoccupied with food, and go through cycles of love and hate with it. It doesn't even correlate with how thin or fat they are. It's a cultural milieu. Depken and many professionals in her field suspect eating disorders are increasingly common among young girls. Parents or educators who suspect an eating disorder should seek professional help.