"The celebrities you see on TV, they all have the perfect body and I think girls will try to have the perfect body," said one teen girl.
"They are pencil thin and the kids look at that and they see that but they don't go into the second part of the story that six weeks later, that person is in the hospital with some kind of eating disorder," one parent said.
It's affecting our kids at younger ages, anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
Anorexia is characterized by an intense fear of weight gain, restrictive eating and body distortion issues. Bulimics binge frequently and then purge by either vomiting, using laxatives, diuretics or over exercising. Causes include societal pressure to be thin plus emotional upheaval.
Each day, thousands of girls are diagnosed with an eating disorder like anorexia and bulimia and forty percent of the new cases are adolescent girls. Marcie Frasier has more.
"Other triggers are stressful life events for children. Parents recently went through divorce or separation, maybe there is a death in the family or even relocation or trauma," said psychologist Shoban Narayan, PhD.
Signs for either disorder can be easily overlooked but caught early, chances for recovery are better. With bulimia, food may disappear in large amounts. After dinner, look for quick exits to the bathroom. Signs of vomiting include odor, the excess use of mouth wash, chewing gum and long term side effects may be eroded tooth enamel.
Warning signs for anorexia can often be found with food. They often push their food around and don't eat it. Look for certain rituals, they will separate their food so they don't touch each other and very often they'll cut food up in certain patterns.
Both disorders may include excessive exercise and frequent weigh-ins. Treating the disorder takes a team.
"You want to make sure it is mutil-modal and including a dietitian, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, maybe even an exercise physiologist along with your physician," Narayan said.