The group dieting that is relatively ad hoc among friends and sorority sisters takes a more organized form on the Internet, where spring break has become a popular topic on Web sites and message boards maintained by devotees of a controversial underground movement known as "pro-ana," or pro-anorexia, who sometimes identify themselves in public by wearing red bracelets. There are hundreds of pro-ana Web sites promoting and supporting the "anorexic lifestyle," despite aggressive efforts to shut them down by eating-disorder activists.
—Alex Williams, "Before Spring Break, the Anorexic Challenge," The New York Times, April 2, 2006

Pick up any gossip magazine, and you'll find a pic-filled spread. "Stars: Are They Too Thin?" they ask as every pound of weight-gain is breathlessly heralded as "a return to curves." These pictures usually make their way onto pro-ana (that's anorexia-promoting) Web sites, where they're tagged as "thinspirations."
—Mark Ellwood, "Is thin in?," New York Daily News, March 9, 2006

Health experts are calling for a ban on "sick" websites that use skinny stars such as Posh Spice and Kate Moss to promote anorexia as an acceptable "lifestyle" choice.

The so-called Pro-Ana sites offer tips on achieving "beautifully emaciated bodies".
—"Anorexia web fear," Scottish Daily Record, February 14, 2001

The two major definitions of ProAna are based on the two most common populations who embrace the term as an identifying descriptor: 1. Individuals suffering from Anorexia Nervosa (AN) or other restrictive eating disorders (ED's): Commonly, this approach to living with an ED stems from barriers to treatment and a subsequent desire to reach out and connect with kindred sufferers for support. They may or may not be recovery-oriented. Genuine ED sufferers who identify as ProAna embrace the term as PROACTIVE IN ANOREXIA - making the most of their Lives despite their disorder. This group includes those for whom treatment is inadequate, inaccessible or unwanted. 2. Individuals who covet pathology; who emulate anorexic behaviors and WANT to cultivate and celebrate ED's within themselves (aka "wanarexics"). These individuals have taken an historical empowerment motto and twisted it's intended meaning to a literal interpretation (i.e., a disavowal of victim mentality as an empowerment strategy -- they actually believe that "Anorexia is a Lifestyle, Not A Disease." These are individuals who do NOT have ED's but wish they did; those who strive to attain the extremely thin physique exhibited in long-term anorexics; who emulate the eating-disordered practices which manifest in AN patients. The former are seeking a new approach to living with these insidious illnesses; reaching out when current treatment modalities have failed to help. The articulation of the "Ana Creed" and "Ana Psalm"; "Thin Commandments" and "Letters from Ana or Mia" were intended as CREATIVE ALLITERATIONS; explorations of the ED psyche - they were NEVER meant to be taken literally! This is a critical issue. Wanarexics have embraced these creative works as literal tenets for "how to become anorexic." The latter are resented by genuine sufferers who know all-too-well that ED's are not glamorous or cool or chic in any way.

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