Model Codie Young hits back at anorexia reports

Codie Young has hit back at reports that she is anorexic.

The 18-year-old Australian model, who recently featured in an advertising campaign for UK high street clothes store Topshop, has been labelled a bad role model for teens because of her slim frame.

After various newspapers said that she was a danger to anorexics and compared her to Kate Moss this week, Young wrote on her blog: "Why should I be accused of something so awful as being anorexic when I'm most definitely not? I love food.

"Firstly this is very hurtful to me as I am naturally skinny. Anyone who knows me would know that I have been naturally skinny my entire life."

Karen Eastall from an anorexia support group blasted Young's Topshop images, saying: "This is absolutely outrageous in 2011, seeing models this thin. The girl looks ill."

Helen Davies from the British anorexia charity Beat added: "This is not the sort of thing we want to see in magazines and on the internet. It's a constant battle against eating disorders and Topshop is not helping matters."

Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Kirstie Clements has now defended Young, saying: "That is her natural body type. Codie is a very rare kind of beauty."

Former American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi announced earlier this year that she had an eating disorder when she was younger. She said: "A friend of mine had gone to fat camp and when she came back she looked so great and I thought, 'Now maybe I should go on a diet'. I wasn't really overweight but I just thought, 'Well my friend is doing it, I should do it'."

Australian Dancing with the Stars runner-up Haley Bracken also recently admitted to being anorexic as a teenager, saying: "I suffered from low self-esteem and body image issues. I only got through it when my younger sister Tersha, who I'm incredibly close to, said to me when she was 6, 'Haley, I don't want you to die'."