The Story Every Parent Needs To Read

As the Royal College of Psychiatrists warns that online content is encouraging eating disorders, Katie Scott and mum Hazel tell us their experience

- Elizabeth Archer

‘IT FELT LIKE I BELONGED TO A SECRET CLUB’

Katie Scott, 21, is a student living in Guildford, Surrey

As I scrolled through my social media, picture after picture flashed before my eyes. The images had a common theme – they were all of girls who were extremely thin. I would spend hours looking at them and poring over the comments below. ‘You look great’ and ‘don’t give up’, they said.

I was 11 when I started using social media. At first, I had a Facebook account, then I moved on to reading blogs and forums. And at 13 I signed up to Instagram. My mum knew I used social media, but thought I was just chatting to friends from school. It wasn’t long before I started coming across pictures of girls who were underweight.