SM: People are mean in high school. Did anyone make fun of you or just come out and tell you how skinny or even “anorexic” you looked?
Lindsay: The skinny comments were actually fuel for me to keep going. In my twisted mind anyone who said “You look too thin,”—that was a good thing. Anyone who said you look normal, you look healthy, you look good—that equated to “you look fat” and I would cut what I was eating or work out more.

SM: Did your parents ever try to force you to eat?
Lindsay: They tried having me eat with them at the table and I went through such an anxiety attack; it was horrible. I remember I was shaking, I couldn’t breathe, I was so scared and I felt like my control was being taken away. They just wanted me to eat so badly.

SM: After two years you were still barely eating and losing weight. Did anyone realize how much you were hurting yourself and that you had a serious eating disorder?
Lindsay: My mom did. My parents prohibited me from running after I dropped more weight. I was starting to hit rock bottom. Around my16th birthday I ended up getting my driver’s license and my car and my dad actually got me a gym membership. He just said, “Don’t tell your mom.” And at that point I just thought he was the greatest thing alive. But I don’t think he was admitting it either. Obviously ‘cause by getting me a gym membership—that just fueled the fire.

No parent wants to think that their child is starving themselves or doing these horrible things to themselves. I think every parent goes through a stage of denial and thinks it’ll be a phase that [his or her child] will get through. They want to believe their daughter when she says, “Oh, no. I swear I’m working on it, I’m eating I’m doing so much better.”