Nowadays, one can hear young girls wishing for Amy Winehouse’s legs and Gemma Ward’s figure.
   
    As a result of society’s obsession to become as thin as the models on the runway and celebrities in the media, eating disorders have taken America by storm. In recent years, however, the Internet has become a popular place for teenagers suffering with eating disorders to turn to for “help and support.”
   
    Anorexic and bulimic teenagers, especially girls, are now seeking comfort and relief from “pro-ana” or “pro-mia” websites, which promote anorexic or bulimic lifestyles. With just a few clicks, sites entitled “Dying to be Thin,” which display images of emaciated women, flash across the screen.
   
    “I think that if the girls and young women are choosing the websites, they’re somehow using that as a way to feel in control and justify what they’re doing because they’re not willing to talk and get self-help,” Mary Anne Knapp, a clinical social worker at the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services at Penn State University, said.

    Blogs can also serve as places where girls record their daily food intake and post their weight and body measurements. Forums provide them with a place to offer crash dieting methods and recipes, give tips on how to hide their disorders and share the best laxatives and emetics to induce vomiting.
   
    “I definitely think these pro-eating disorder sites are a serious problem.” Patrick Bergstrom eating disorder activist, said. “I checked them [the sites] out, and it really just shows how serious of an illness this is and how sick the people on there really are.”

    Bergstrom is a recovering survivor of anorexia nervosa who was diagnosed in March 2008. Today, he is the founder of I Chose to Live, an online support group for those with eating disorders.

    Researchers of Optenet, an Internet security company, say that pro-eating disorder websites have heightened by 460 percent since 2006. This calls into question whether pro-ana and pro-mia websites should be banned.

    “The more pressure that is pushed against the people on these sites, the more they will band together to make the other sites stronger,” Joanna Poppink, a Los Angeles private practice psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders said.

    “More pressure will build more commitment to maintain the pro-anorexia sites that they have already established. The answer is not legislation; the answer is help.”