Confessions of a fashionista: Why on earth was my colleague looking at a pro-anorexia website?

Not many people in the fashion industry know I write this column. If they found out - and recognised themselves - they would be very angry. I would no doubt be sacked, sued and loose all my store discounts.

Only a select few are privy to my dirty secret. And they love it. They laugh with me at the atrocities taking place under the banner of 'normal' conduct in fashion. And they feed me juicy titbits from their own day to day experiences. Some of my columns shock the readers, but nothing shocks us.

Until I received an email about this very column, that shook me to the core.

A former colleague who left the industry a year ago to go travelling sent me a link. She had found this column referred to on a pro-anorexia website.

Upsetting: A former colleague found this column referred to on a pro-anorexia website - but what was she doing there in the first place?

Pro-anorexia websites are electronic meeting places for those suffering from eating disorders. But rather than places of comfort and support for those fighting diseases, they are places of conformity and compliance: they push anorexia as a lifestyle choice. People swap tips on how to avoid eating at all.

The websites are littered with self published photos of emaciated girls resembling skeletons. This particular website had hyperlinked to my column about cake sniffers.

Cake sniffers is my nickname for the workmates who smell cake rather than eat it. They take a big sniff of sweet indulgent treats and then dump them in the bin - avoiding ingesting any calories.

I'm horrified. I held the cake sniffers up for mockery. It is a ridiculous notion. Who in their right mind would read anything like that and think it's an advisable path to take? I suppose that's the point: the girls who visit these websites aren't in their right minds, they are unwell.

I was horrified. I held the cake sniffers up for mockery. Who in their right mind would read anything like that and think it's an advisable path to take?

It made me think. While I take the mickey out my colleagues and expose the weird and bizarre rituals of the fashion industry, some people still think it's something to aspire to.

There are nice, normal souls who work in fashion, but I never write about them. There are too many entertaining super egos, and twiglet space cadets to make fun of. I consider it a strike back for all those whose self-confidence has ever been dented by the onslaught of images of perfect smiling models everywhere.

I was so upset by this evil website I fired off an indignant email to my friend. How atrocious! How sick! I should sue the owners of the site!

It was only when I calmed down I questioned what was she doing on a pro-anorexia website? You can take the girl out of the fashion industry, but you can't take the fashion industry out of the girl.