Georgina Wilkin's nickname was "pencil" She'd worked with big name designers like Prada and The Gap, and, she says, she almost died. Now 23, Wilkin says she still suffers from anorexia. "At the end of the day, my modelling career lasted for three years and as a result, I've had anorexia for eight, and I'm still battling it today," she told the Telegraph.


Georgina was a British size 8 -- the equivalent of a U.S. size 2 -- but was told she needed to lose more weight. So she did what any impressionable 15-year-old might, and took diet pills to drop more pounds. The physical pain was excruciating. But that was just part of it. There was also the mental torment. "One day I was put in a line-up with 12 models. We were all naked apart from flesh-coloured thongs, standing in front of a panel of casting directors. They basically went through us and said 'yes,' no,' 'yes,' 'no,' depending on whether we were thin enough. If you weren't thin enough you were sent out of the room immediately. I was sent out." If that sounds like a cruel and unusual thing to do to a 15-year-old girl, well, that's because it is.

Without anyone to look after her, Wilkin languished. She didn't have any money, didn't know where to buy food, and therefore, didn't really eat. Eventually, her body rebelled and she was admitted to the hospital and treated for anorexia. She's been in recovery for the last six years.

Wilkin said she's speaking out about what she's gone through because she wants save other girls from what she's experienced. "I still struggle with anorexia on a day-to-day basis and probably will for a long time, but the important thing is I don't have to look thin for my job anymore and I'm happy with myself whatever I size I am," she said. "I want other teenage girls who are battling with body image to get here too." [Telegraph]