Recently experts have been talking about the increasing number of cases of obesity, especially in young children, in the United States. While this is a growing trend, there are still many young children, young girls in particular, who have serious body image problems. These girls are starving themselves attempting to achieve the “perfect body.” Eating disorders and poor body image have been blamed on many things; however, one girl seems to have taken much of the blame—Barbie. I was, and still am a huge fan of Barbie. I spent countless hours with her during my early childhood, and she did not seem to have any effect on my mental health or body perception. I want to learn whether I am the exception, and if Barbie presents an unattainable body to young receptive girls.

My audience is students, like myself. Also, parents of girls ages three to eight who play with Barbie dolls. These parents may be concerned that their daughter is getting a poor body image from Barbie. Through the course of this project, I hope to answer the following questions:

Does Barbie make young girls feel bad about their own bodies?
Is Barbie the only reason that these girls have a poor body image?
Are young girls who play with Barbie more likely to develop an eating disorder?

Countless doctors and other medical professionals have theories and methods for “supporting” and “curing” people with eating disorders, and these work for many people. However, recently the anorexic community has found their own “solution”—the Web.

Today around 400 pro-anorexia, “pro-ana,” web sites exist as a support system to people at all stages of the disease. (1) Girls as young as 10 visit these sites daily to feel accepted, share feelings, and get anorexia tips. Some sites get so many hits that by mid-month the sites are inaccessible. (2) While numbers are growing, there are only a small percentage of anorexics that are self-proclaimed “pro-ana.” This hard to pinpoint group is described by eating disorder specialists as a “small, vocal, and proactive minority.” (2)

Pro-anorexia sites are difficult to find now except for those who are on the inside. This is because the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders asked large servers like Yahoo, which was hosting more than 100 of the sites, to take down the sites in July 2001. While Yahoo removed the sites, the owners quickly found private servers to use as hosts. (1)

The opinions on whether these sites are damaging both to people with eating disorders and to those who have the potential to develop them are divided. Dr. Rachel Russell, a clinician specializing in eating disorders in Danbury, Conn., views the web sites as an “honest expression of what anorexia is, complete with the ambivalence.” (1) However, psychotherapist Steven Levenkron, who wrote the anorexic's bible, The Best Little Girl in the World, in 1978 and Anatomy of Anorexia in 2000, says that the sites connect with potentially treatable girls, “seducing” them into anorexia and make the girls who run the sites feel “less lonely.” (1)