How a woman of 23 terrified of growing up has taken to extreme dieting to give her the body of a 12-year-old

The female Peter Pan: How a woman of 23 terrified of growing up has taken to extreme dieting to give her the body of a 12-year-old

By Alison Smith Squire
Last updated at 1:06 AM on 03rd January 2009


Frozen in time: Vikki Hensley weighs less than 6 stone and eats just 1,000 calories a day

Like a female Peter Pan, this 23-year-old woman is so terrified of ageing she has chosen not to grow up.

Vikki Hensley has frozen her body in time to that of a 12-year-old girl through extreme dieting.

As the science graduate became anorexic before she hit puberty, she has never had a period, needed to wear a bra or had a proper boyfriend.

To stop herself growing 'older' she sticks to a diet of less than 1,000 calories a day - a regime that has stunted her height to 5ft 2in and keeps her weight at 5 1/2 stones.

The dieting has come terrifyingly close to costing Miss Hensley her life.

But she insists she has a strange feeling of pride about her looks - and has no plans to change her lifestyle.

Miss Hensley, from East Croydon in Surrey, began to starve herself at the age of 12 when she was bullied for being a swot.

'I found if I looked younger and took on a more fragile appearance it frightened off the bullies,' said Miss Hensley, the daughter of an optician and a legal secretary.

'Even the teachers warmed to my vulnerable child-like appearance, treating me more sympathetically and giving me more attention.

'Now, I can't imagine what it would be like to be a curvy woman.'

At the age of 17, however, her weight dropped alarmingly to only 4st 4lb.

'Doctors told my shocked parents I was so ill, I could die of heart failure,' she said.

'So doctors forced fed me with a tube down my nose, which saved my life.'


Smiling aged seven: Vikki with her mother and father and baby brother

Since then she has managed to control what she eats to keep her weight at a constant 5st 7lb.

'I don't eat at regular times. Instead I nibble throughout the day on bags of raw vegetables, cooked swede, tiny portions of tuna, occasionally eating a square of chocolate,' she said.

'I wanted to achieve my dream of going to university and knew I had to be well enough to study.'



Against all the odds, she has gained ten GCSEs, all As or A*s, four A-levels and a first-class degree in biomedical science from King's College London.

She now intends to study for a PhD, her ambition being to find ways of curing cancer.

But doctors have warned her that if she continues with her extreme diet she could seriously harm her liver and kidneys. She may have also damaged her fertility.

Yet she is still not ready to become a woman.

'Looking younger and having a child's body does give me an odd buzz and a sense of achievement,' she said.

'Also, while I have never had a proper boyfriend or even felt sexy, I wouldn't want to develop curves because I wouldn't feel comfortable attracting men's attention.'

Her parents have 'begged and cajoled' her to eat more, she said, but to no avail.

Miss Hensley added: 'While in some ways I long to break out of the bubble I've created for myself and be like any other 23-year-old woman, I am also terrified of taking that step.'

Experts warn more and more young women are controlling their weight to a dangerous extent.

Deanne Jade, a psychologist at the National Centre for Eating Disorders, said: 'Women, particularly young women, are these days under such pressures to have the perfect body that we are seeing a new trend in eating disorders emerging.

'Dubbed the "high functioning anorexics", they are women who keep themselves pin thin but able to manage every day life simply by consuming very low calorie diets.

'However, in their bid to stay so slim they take terrible risks with their health - ironically ending up suffering from diseases usually associated with the elderly such as osteoporosis and crumbling teeth.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1104511/The-female-Peter-Pan-How-woman-23-terrified-growing-taken-extreme-dieting-body-12-year-old.html