Stephanie Pratt: “The Hills Made Me Bulimic”
June 17, 2009 in Beauty & Body Image, Celebrity Quotes, General, Stephanie Pratt by Versus
Hills star Stephanie Pratt opens up for the first time in the new issue of Us Weekly about hating her body and her terrifying secret struggle with bulimia — sparked, she says, by the pressure of appearing alongside her super-thin friends on the hit MTV reality show.
The 5-foot-7 23-year-old reveals she began bingeing and purging after watching a scene she shot with Lauren Conrad in 2007 after first joining the cast: “I was horrified. I remember saying, ‘I can’t believe how huge I look walking over to Lauren.’”
Another time, when filming in Hawaii in bikinis, the size 0-2 Pratt –- in a bikini and cover-up — asked costar Audrina Patridge, “What looks better, ’shirt on or off?’” Patridge said ‘On.’” Says Pratt, “The producers never put pressure on us to lose weight,” but adds, “It’s embarrassing working with skinny girls.”
Source: Us Weekly
thats really sad. i am 17 and have also been bulimic. its a terrible thing to go through. trust me ladies, dont do it. EVER. God bless this youg woman. i hope she recovers. it will damage her body. sh’ll eventually get esophagil cancer and may even become infeile if she does not stop.
I obviously feel really sorry for her, and no I don’t think she’s the most gorgeous girl, but I always thought she has a beautiful body with gorgeous long legs.
But the rest of the cast aren’t that skinny, I know they have different bodyshapes but I always thought Steph was skinner that Lauren.
My thoughts exactly.. Lauren is definitely not skinnier than Steph. Poor girl. I know how it feels to see everyone skinnier than you. It simply ruins every bit of confidence.
you two said it all =)
I know how it feels because my ribcage is huge
isn’t it sad that we feel so insecure around our skinny girlfriends, or other skinny women, but we don’t feel that way around women who are geniuses….i’m not juding anyone, because i fall prey to this type of thinking all the time too….but everytime I catch my self, it makes me really sad. I’d rather be jealous of somebody’s brains than somebody’s looks.
Well, i am insecure as far as my body goes, not as far as my brains. I really don’t know anyone who is a genius. My best friend – he is a guy – is probably the only person that ever made me feel stupid. That’s why i love him in the first place, he can outtake me in that point. I lack confidence bodywise b/c i was always looked at as the smart chick… sorry…
WOW, poor girl i feel really sorry 4 her too =(, she’s such a good girl she don’t deserve to feel like that.
i understand how she feel, and it’s a terrible feeling, i hope she gets better and understand that she’s a beautiful girl and recovers of all this .
Stephanie Pratt is skinnier than the rest of the cast by far… its just that when you have a twisted perception of what your body looks like its hard to see it that way. Im sure many girls can relate to her story, true story or not, its good that this kind of story comes out once in a while to remind people that its ok to ask for help or reassurance.
If she’s posing in a bikini like that then she is NOT bulimic, merely under pressure to lose weight within the industry. There is such a difference and it bothers me so much how celebs pull out the ‘I have/had an ED card’ when really the’re desire to get thin got out of control. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. As a long time sufferer of bulimia it never started off as pressure to lose weight, I was only 100 pounds when it started. It was a coping mechanism during a very difficult period, a control issue, which is what bulimia is. It is not a method of losing weight. She is detracting from the seriousness of the disease and making it harder for the general public to understand how life threatning it is. Sorry for ranting, just needed to vent. I have to live with the long term consequences of the disease, and it’s not something you ever get over you have to deal with it every day.
I agree.
I too have a ED, and while on the outside it was pressure to lose weight, really I was using it as a way to cope.
I would never EVER pose in a bikini, even though people say Im slim all the time (Im 5’9 135lbs).
Totally agree. I think this is something used for publicity. I have an eating disorder too and I understand the girls who has it, but I don’t think she has such a big problem.
i have an eating disorder as well. and have been anorexic, and then bulimic, and now im a bit of both
i can understand she went through a little bulimic phase, but it pisses me off because this stupid bi**h doesn’t have an eating disorder, girls with eating disorders are so insecure with their bodies they cover up…….and shes on a bikini in front of a magazine cover? please. this bi**h just wants her 15 minutes of fame.
f**k her
Who are you to downsize another persons eating disorder? We are all different, inside and out, and bulimia is not a one-size-fits-all disorder.
Stephanie’s story doesn’t take away from yours or anyone elses.
I think that when a person throws up repeatedly and intentionally, that it can be classified as disordered eating. If somebody is purposefully harming their body in any way, there is obviously something wrong. Things can spiral out of control, and it is just as easy for bulimia as an obsession with weight to turn into a coping method, as it is for bulimia as a coping method to turn into an obsession with weight. Eating disorders are in no way uniform, and everybody who has one suffers and recovers in different ways; I don’t believe that anybody has the right to make accusations when it comes to such a serious topic.
you’re wrong sweetie. for you it may have been a defene mechanism, for me it was deffinatelyy for weight loss. and youu can get over it. i did. and if you should never question if someone has/had it. how would you feel if you were going through that kidn of living hell and when you got the courage to tell someone they didnt believe you?
Bulimia can start for a number of reasons–obsession with losing weight being one of them. Usually wanting to lose weight is some sort of mask for feeling inadequate or unloveable or wanting to control something in one’s life. But the individual may only acknowledge that they want to lose weight–not addressing why it is so important that they do. It would not be accurate to say that everyone’s bulimia has to begin the same way that yours did. I apologize if this is offensive, but nor do I believe it’s a disease. Individuals are not born bulemic. It’s the result of disfunction caused by one’s unique personality and their environment (circumstances). There’s no biological root for bulimia, nor can someone catch it.
You most definitely cannot say that every eating disorder is derived from the same roots that yours is. Yes it is about control but there are different spectrums of which you obviously know nothing about. This girl is also in the public eye and obviously there is a problem when she already started off thinner then the other girls in the show but felt inadequate. You have no right to judge her and I agree with another comment saying how would you feel if you could finally open up about your battle and everyone thought you were over reacting? None of us have any idea what is in this girls mind and its probably taken her a lot of courage to stand up and ask for help.
I absolutely agree with Jedle.
I too suffered from an eating disorder, got better, and then suffered with the disorder again. I can definetly understand how I needed to be in control of something in my life, however, my goal was to lose weight. The very first time I developed my eating disorder I was 13 and rail thin but because of a fear of developing a more womanly body as I underwent puberty, I dieted and exercised nonstop and was indeed out of control. When I would gain weight, I felt as though I had failed. It scaried me to know that my weightloss was only conditional, and that it was not under my control.
A few years later, I once again developed an eating disorder, but this time the reason for it was because of a societal pressure to be thin. Just as Stephanie was surrounded by skinny girls, so was I, and I understand the pain and the total loss of confidence that results from that kind of a situation.
Im not one to take eating disorders lightly and Im not questioning her becuase she may be bulimic but not many people suffering from an eating disorder would pose in a bikini on the cover of a popular magazine.
While bulimia isnt always about loosing weight but rather mantaining and controlling it, whatever she has if she does suffer from anything I do sympathy with her.
Having any issue with food is horrible to live with.
Does anyone else think she bares a slight resemblance to ashley roberts [pussycat dolls]??
As far as the story itself, I find it hard to believe she has/had a real eating disorder to come out and speak so honestly about it….every woman has insecurities about their bodies but a full blown E.D? Hmm not so sure. I think the pay cheque did alot of the talking.
A t.v. can’t create something that she didn’t already have a propensity towards. But I can relate though… The Hills gave me chronic nausea.
hahahaha!
i have to agree with some of the other posters. i’m not questioning her body issues, but it seems a little hard for someone suffering from bulimia to pose in a bikini. i don’t doubt all the girls on the hills have disordered eating, but a full blown eating disorder is a different story.
I’ve never thought she was fat..just giving her the benefit of the doubt, I hope she’s better now with the whole ED.
I’m not suprised- seeing anyone from the Hills makes me wanna barf!!
No but seriously another attention wh0re who will try the ED card… Like get a life and think before you speak…
she is lying….its her turn for her 15 minutes and knows what will sell magazines and get her the cover……sorry, she isn’t bulimic…..
you don’t know that.
for those who say she isn’t bulimic because she is posing in a bikini, remember all girls with eating disorders are different; i’m currently trying to recover from anorexia and there is no way in hell i would pose in anything that shows my body too much, and my best friend suffered through bulimia but she still wore her usual clothes, tank tops, miniskirts, bikinis in the summer etc because that’s just the kind of person she is
she’s going to make ME bulimic.
The Hills is way too scripted now. Is this another script in the works… lemme guess a Steph intervention. Spencer will bring cheeseburgers and fries to the intervention.
She looked much better her original weight as she was not overweight at all. Now way too thin – looks sick.
These kids really need to get a real job. When the cameras fade they will have nothing to fall back on – except their boney azzes.
Her lower body is much thinner than Lauren’s. She just has very wide shoulders but her legs are half the size of the other cast members.
Steph is a lovely girl she just has no confidence. It is because Spencer is her brother, he’s an idiot and her stupid dimwit family obviously loved him more than her.
Steph needs to LOOSE Spencer and BUILD her own life and self-esteem.
She’s way prettier than Heidi but Heidi believes in herself – Steph doesn’t.
She needs to cut off the douchebag brother (why does she hang around him all the time? he’s not her boyfriend!!) and find more friends like Lauren and less like Heidi/Audrina/Spencer.
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