Anorexic's Advice

Remember that your weight isn't the only part of your appearance that you have control over. If you want to change, remember that you can change lots of different things - your clothes, your jewellery, your makeup and your hair. In many ways these are more noticable, interesting and expressive than your weight!

Clothes

Many people falsely believe that if you're thin you'll be able to suit any clothes. Trust us - it's not true! Girls of all shapes and sizes have trouble clothes shopping - being thin won't neccessarily solve the problem. Also - your biggest problem areas - lets say you have a flabby stomach - will still stay your biggest problem area even when you've lost the weight - you'll still be the same shape.

It's a good idea to assess your body and choose clothes that flatter you - which subtly hide the bits you dislike, and show off the bits you do like. For example if you have wide hips don't wear tight trousers, but if you have great legs wear skirts! Trinny & Susannah have some great tips - and there are some great books by them to help too. Whatever you do - don't try to hide your body under baggy shapeless clothes.

Jewellery

Jewellery (and other accessories such as hats, bags and scarves) can be wonderful to distract people from your body's 'problem areas' and makes you look much more interesting and individual. Most jewellery tends to draw the eye to some of the thinner parts of the body such as the wrists - and this in turn will make you look slimmer.

Hair

Your hair is often the first thing someone notices about you (unless you're wearing really attention-grabbing clothing!), and so it's worth keeping it looking good. Your hair can express a lot about you as a person - for example if it's short and boyish it implies you are practical and don't spend much time on your appearance.

What do you notice first about this picture? Her hair and clothes? Or her not-stick-thin thighs? Would she be more interesting if she spent her time losing weight rather than painting amazing pictures like that one on the wall behind her?