Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.

Tracing the origins and causes of this disease, the author shows how an innocent desire to lose a few pounds can manifest in life-threatening symptoms, discussing the social and physiological forces that shape the illness.

In an effort to get over her mother's death and the jealousy she feels for the new girl at school, Raesha concentrates on losing weight to make her performance at the upcoming high school rodeo competition the best it can be.

In 1995, Hadley Freeman wrote in her diary: "I just spent three years of my life in mental hospitals. So why am I crazier than I was before????" From the ages of fourteen to seventeen, Freeman lived in psychiatric wards after developing anorexia nervosa. Her doctors informed her that her body was cannibalizing her muscles and heart for nutrition, but they could tell her little why she had it, what it felt like, what recovery looked like. For the next...

"Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books--the weird one, the outsider--and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he...

The actress, who played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films, shares how she confronted all the complexities and contradictions within herself; reveals how she began to conquer her self-hate and eating disorder; and explores the choices that led her down the path of creativity.

In the hospital where she is receiving treatment for anorexia, twelve-year-old Riley records her days in her journal-- going to therapy, rediscovering her love of art, dealing with her rule-breaking roommate, and worrying about relapse once she returns home.

Required by her cross-country coach to keep a food diary, an insecure teen finds that writing helps organize her thoughts, especially about issues that she, her best friend, and her mother face related to weight and eating.

Fourteen-year-old Max records his efforts to control his anorexia in a therapist-prescribed journal that also chronicles his parents' difficult relationship and his feelings for a new girl at school, Evie.