Fit and well: Melanie Monks at a healthier eight stone, left, and when she was in the grips of anorexia
Melanie Monks, 19, is now a healthier eight stone and is set to enter a beauty queen competition in the hope of being able to run for the Miss England contest.
Miss Monks said she wanted to look as thin as Victoria Beckham and Nicole Richie after being bullied at school for being 'fat'.
After seeing a famous 2006 picture of a skeletal Miss Richie running down the beach in a blue bikini with her hip bones jutting out of the bottom, Miss Monks said she went without food for up to five days at a time.
She refused to keep her food down - leaving her with a gaunt face and twig-like legs.
As friends begged her to gain a little weight, Miss Monks said she was thrilled when she finally reached her shockingly tiny 'goal weight' by the age of 17 and could easily fit into clothes made for 8-10-year-olds.
But at over three stone underweight, Miss Monk's finger nails began falling off, her hair fell out in clumps and her skin came out in spots and rashes.
She eventually faced up to her problem when plumber boyfriend Lee Ryan 26, convinced her to research eating disorders on the internet and she recognised she was a sufferer and underwent counselling.
Now Miss Monks is a more healthy eight stone and is due to start a degree in psychology.
She is also due to enter a beauty queen competition in her hometown of Blackburn in the hope of being able to run for the Miss England contest.
Miss Monks today condemned the culture of stick thin models and said: 'We've all been bombarded with images of these celebrities we admire aspiring to be really thin but it's wrong and it's a bad example to set. It's simply not healthy.
'It's a tough ride. I don't think it ever goes away. I'm still in recovery but I'm definitely on the other end and I want to help other girls out. I want to show them that beauty's not just about that.
'I may still be thin but I'm getting better, I'm active, I work very hard and I'm healthy.'
As a youngster Miss Monks had always been fit and pretty and as she hit her teens she weighed a healthy 9.5 stone.
But after being targeted by jealous bullies who labelled her 'fat' Miss Monks, then 13, dramatically changed her diet, counting calories and controlling portions before eventually starving herself completely.
'I thought, "If you lose weight people will like you and I will look like all the supermodels. Everybody else is thin."
'I had no friends. So I started trying to lose weight. I thought it would help me become accepted.
'Airbrushed pictures of models in magazines made me feel worse about myself. There were fashion trends that I thought I couldn't work as a size 12.
'There was Posh's seven-inch heels and hot pants and I remember Kate Moss Top Shop advert. It was a black dress, cinched in at the waist and billowing out under that.
'There were diets being recommended like lemon juice and kale at meal time - that's an anorexic's breakfast. When that's all you see in magazines, you feel like you're not good enough.
'The weight fell off very fast. People started noticing me and I got a lot of compliments from my friends and family and even random people at school.
'Because the compliments felt so good, I thought, "Do more!"
'It was a way of dealing with anger and upset, throwing food away and controlling that.
'It started out in portion sizes and then it got to calories and I really cracked down. It got so bad that some days I wouldn't eat anything.
'I used to challenge myself, not eating anything for all day, then two whole days. I remember one day feeling so guilty because I had one small tomato. Eventually I was going up to five days at a time without eating.
She added: 'It's a fake confidence, eating disorders. It's not you, not yourself. I felt like I was fake because when I was that thin everybody used to say, "Oh, where's my old Melanie? I want her back."
'It made me feel like I had to do something but it's so hard to recover from it.'
Eating disorders are responsible for the highest number of deaths of any psychiatric illness and Miss Monks now hopes to use her experience to help others.
'I'd like to set up help groups so girls can come round and chat together, have a brew, go for walks and get some advice at the same time.
'No one knows better how to make an anorexic well again than someone who's been there.'
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