Tips For Being Bulimic

My perfect weekend: Teresa Scanlan

Since I was crowned Miss America in Las Vegas this year, no two Friday nights have been the same. It means so much being Miss America. You have to represent where you come from, which in my case is a small town in rural Nebraska, and be an inspiration to young girls across the world. It’s a full-on job; this weekend I’m in Germany and last week I was in London to meet the Earl of Wessex at Buckingham Palace – he’s launching the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award in the United States, in partnership with Miss America.

I competed in my first pageant when I was a 13-year-old kid with braces. I have three sisters and three brothers, so my parents couldn’t be there to hold my hand. When I told them I wanted to enter they just said “OK, great, have fun” – it was my thing and I had to do it on my own. I did it to earn scholarship money for college.

Goodness I was nervous at that first pageant but when I look back on it I realise that it was the first time I truly felt I “belonged”. I’d always been good at singing, dancing, playing the piano and community and school work but I’d never excelled in one particular area. The contest encompassed all my interests; here I was rewarded for doing well across the board. I went on to win the local Scotts Bluff County title and was then crowned Miss Nebraska. Now I’m the youngest Miss America since age requirements were established 70 years ago.

The Miss America finals took place at the Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas for a full 10 days. Deciding what to wear was the fun part. Being from such a large family, I grew up with hand-me-downs, but I went to Texas and to Florida to buy my Miss America wardrobe. For a pageant you need outfits for the talent portion – I play the piano – and for the personal interview, in which the judges ask questions about political and current events. You also need a swimsuit and heels for the lifestyle and fitness portion and a gown for the evening wear portion, where you’re judged on poise and bearing. And that’s just for the competition: in Vegas we were attending all sorts of other events that required dressing up. In the end I took about 30 different outfits and an entire suitcase of shoes.

Saturday was spent rehearsing and the final contest was broadcast live on television that night. It was crazy thinking that millions of people were watching me but I guess I’d been preparing for the contest for my whole life. I’ve played the piano for 11 years, and I enjoy keeping fit and following the news and politics. When I was six years old, if anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d have said it was to be president and a Supreme Court Justice.

What are the consequences of being bulimic? — Through Up

Four out of ten teenagers with an eating disorder have visited a dieting website, according to new research by Dr. Rebecka Peebles of Stanford University. The websites, which routinely publish tips for losing weight and weight goal charts, inspired more than 60 percent of the teens who visited them to try new weight loss strategies or diet aids.

The survey found that teens who visited sites that encouraged weight loss were more likely to miss school or spend time in the hospital than those who didn’t. A third of the teens surveyed said they had visited a website to learn how to overcome eating disorders, although Dr. Peebles noted that the chat rooms available on recovery websites were frequently used by teens to swap tips on how to lose weight.

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