It will NOT 'make-a-blind-bit-of-difference'!!
In-fact some anorectics will think, this is the way we would like to look!

Give that girl a bowl of soup!!!!!

This is a major issue - not just a storm in an AAA cup.

Seriously though - the sooner more people with healthy shapes are seen as role models the better.

Ban size zeros and fatties, show people who are healthy and mainstream, not freaks on the periphery.

Is selling a product more important important than knowing some gullible young girls will starve themselves to death?

Also - think of the benefit of declining politicians access to posters and TV as they are the size of trucks.

Send them all a copy of the SWRI cookbook. Lots of bod building recipes in there!!!

I like them skinny, but there are limits. She looks like a refugee from Belsen.

This is entirely the Fashion industry's doing because they refuse to see anything other than their ectomorphic models as being "anatomically perfect"!

Bosh!!! They're just trying to save materials so they can get more money for minimum fabric ... thereby sending out completely the wrong message to our kids, who come in all shapes and sizes.

And the moronic celebrity cult doesn't help either with their lionisation of designers, who get like chefs in that they're all uppity about their product!

Personally, I'd like to see more endomorphs on the catwalk, without them being pilloried for not being stick-thin!!!

Fat(tish) is normal for some people!

Jail the fashion NAZIs - they are the real enemy (along with the MOD, of course).

Obviously there needs to be a cultural exchange between Italy and Scotland. They're too thin; we're too fat. But after the Rugby World Cup...

A couple of thoughts.

Caro isn't a typical anorexic in that she fully acknowledges that she has a diagnosed illness and wants to recover. Many anorexics not only refuse to accept that there's anything wrong with them, but as comment #1 points out, they actively wish to look as awful as this unfortunate young woman. Only they don't think it's awful, they somehow think that this is a desirable body image.

Whether or not this is the "fault" of the fashion industry, they don't help by making virtually all catwalk models and all fashion manequins stick insect shape. How is an average woman (apparently size 16) meant to find out what the clothes will look like on her? I read recently that John Lewis is planning to introduce more realistic sized manequins, which can only be a good thing.

Finally: Conan. You have a valid point, but automatically labelling anyone you don't approve of as a Nazi doesn't add anything to your argument.

Send 'em to Scotland - we're so obese that even a 14-stone porker lass would look like she could do with a decent fish supper...oh and slices of buttered bread on the side to make chip buttys with the left-over sauced-up chips...mmm, damn, I am SO hungy now. I'm seriously in the market for a chippy already.

Yes...some lovely attitudes here to what is a serious illness.

#10. I WAS going to say lighten up Cankers, but in light of the article .....

You're right, of course, it is serious, but one of the ways to battle anorexia is to to highlight it at every turn to young people, especially girls, that trying to be skinny will hurt you. Humour is one way of going about it. You know that ... you use it very well yourself in your postings st times.

#11 - indeed. I saw a huge, enormous fat man at the cricket world cup wearing a t-shirt that read 'I beat anorexia'.

Well done to him - an example to us all.

Boy Wonder...anorexia is not a simple condition..a lot of women are anorexic as a means to punish themselves...women who have been sexually abused can become anorexic in order to remain in a childlike body..no breasts..no periods....and to chastise themselves for a sin that they did not commit...

Focusing on the image does not help the women suffering...it is not just about the fashion world (which certainly sends out the wrong message) but why young women...and now young men it would appear...wish to starve themselves to the point of death..

I'm sorry but I cannot find any humour in this condition...I am horrified for the people who have to watch a loved one waste away voluntarily knowing that death is very much a possibility. It is a mental illness and I cant laugh at it...

For some anorexics it is the hurt that makes them skinny and not vice versa.

The media has to take some responsibility for eating disorders. Girls and young women are constantly subjected to pictures of underweight 'celebrities' and given information on how to reach size zero. The rise of the WAG has encouraged young women to live beyond their means and aspire to a lifestyle they cannot afford. I could be a lot slimmer than I am if I had the time and the money to go to the gym every day, hire a personal trainer etc....
There are clearly some cultural issues around eating disorders as well....
I worked in Zambia as a VSO volunteer and my students were bemused by the idea that someone could be offered food and refuse it!!!

It's hardly the fault of the fashion industry. Body dysmorphia isn't caused by images.

9. The Genius

Interesting concept.

Which nation has the lowest percentage of anorexics?

Perhaps an introduction to the culture there could be a more holistic cure.

thats the fashion industry for you the likes of Posh etc, they should be bloody ashamed of themselves.

The same industry that promoted a 12 year old in a bikini at the Paris fashion show, she looked 18 disgrace.

But then there are plenty mugs who rush out to harvey nicks to spend their ill gotten gains.

I blame the Fashion Industry. They must be afraid to spend too much money on material, so they pick the skinniest models to go on the runway!!

This add already worked on me, I don't envy how skinny this woman is. Besides, it's good to have a little badunk-a-dunk.

In my State NH it is said, I've heard; "the closer
the bone, the sweeter the meet:-)"