Full-Figured Doll Transforms Beauty Image

ByABC News
October 25, 2002, 12:55 PM

S E A T T L E, Oct. 27 -- Leah Anderson, like many other young women, nearly starved herself to death trying to achieve a seemingly unattainable standard of beauty, so a new plus-size doll that emulates a more curvaceous model offers a welcome dose of reality for her.

When Anderson was growing up, the idea of beauty was often portrayed in the media by super-skinny models, causing her to become obsessed with trying to alter her body to fit that image.

When her soccer coach asked her to gain some weight, Anderson complied, but then decided to shed pounds. Soon her dieting spiraled out of control.

"I started gaining the weight back, or gaining weight, when my coach told me to," Anderson told ABCNEWS affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle. "And then I just flipped out, completely flipped out and stopped eating all together."

Then she started obsessing over her body, causing her to lose an immense amount of weight.

"I got down to a little over 90 pounds and I'm over 5 [feet] 8 so I lost a good 50, 60 pounds probably," she said.

An Uncontrollable Obsession

However, Anderson's uncontrollable obsession still made her believe that she needed to lose more weight.

"You still feel fat at 90 pounds," she said.

Starting in her freshmen year of college, Anderson became addicted to glamour magazines, and that obsession continued for 2 ½ years.

"I was just obsessed with numbers and the facts and statistics, and things like that, the images that you see in the magazines of these models and you just are like, 'I'm just not like that, so I need to be,'" she said.

Everyone was aware that Anderson had a problem except her. She had to hit rock bottom before she asked for help, and only then learned that every body is beautiful.

"If I did not get help, I would have died," she said.

However, Anderson wasn't the only victim of the media's portrayal of perfection.

"Models only represent two percent of the American public, so that means 98 percent of the people don't look like women they see in magazines and on TV," said Holly Hoff, of the National Eating Disorder Association.