The world’s thinnest woman, Valeria Levitin, weighs just four stone after years of extreme dieting, a fraction of her healthy weight. At 5ft 8in, she should weigh between 9st and 12st, according to NHS advice. Despite her emaciated figure, Levitin urges girls not to aspire to matchstick-thin bodies, emphasizing the need for a wake-up call.
Valeria Levitin, originally from Russia and currently residing in Monaco, reveals a concerning trend: receiving fan mail from girls eager to emulate her skeletal appearance.
The 39-year-old, speaking to The Sun, discloses, “I have received emails from young girls who want me to teach them how to be like me. All the letters I’ve had are from women, mainly in their twenties, who see me as some kind of inspiration.”
In response, she courageously addresses her condition, actively campaigning against anorexia. Valeria Levitin asserts her stance, refusing to provide instruction on a path she describes as leading young girls toward self-destruction.
Valeria, who grappled with an eating disorder since adolescence, has decided to publicly address the profound impact the illness has had on her life.
Expressing a desire to share her journey, she aims to discourage others from succumbing to a similar fate. Valeria Levitin emphasizes that anorexia has left her feeling “lonely, unattractive, and repulsive to the people around me.”
Her conviction traces back to her mother’s apprehension that Valeria could develop obesity akin to other family members. This led to dietary restrictions even during her early childhood.
Valeria’s mother, driven by an unrelenting pursuit of perfection, frequently monitored her daughter’s weight to ensure no gains.
At the age of 16, weighing 10st, Valeria relocated to Chicago with her parents. Eager to assimilate into a new school environment, she believed shedding pounds would secure acceptance and popularity.
In her quest to fit in, she intensified her dietary restrictions, eliminating sugar and carbohydrates from her meals.
Ironically, having abstained from certain foods for an extended period, Valeria’s body has become intolerant to them, rendering them challenging to process. Following a hurtful comment about her figure from a classmate, Valeria’s determination to lose weight intensified even further.
She recounted a painful incident, sharing, “We were playing football and during the game a man said, ‘I know how we can win. We need to put Valeria’s big ar*e in the goal’. It shattered my whole world.”
At the age of 23, Valeria’s dress size drastically dropped from a healthy size 12 to a petite size 6.
Opting to pursue a modeling career exacerbated her struggles. She was told she was still too fat to succeed. By the age of 24, weighing a mere six stone, she was prohibited from dancing due to concerns about potential injuries.
Over the following decade, she consulted over 30 health specialists, experiencing a perilous low of 3st 10lbs. Even if she desires certain foods today, consumption is impossible.
The necessity to avoid many foods persists due to their adverse effects on her body. So extended is her abstinence from bread that she can’t recall its taste.
Her affliction has cast a shadow of loneliness over her life. Unattached for ten years, the world’s thinnest woman finds relationships challenging, unable to partake in typical couple activities like dining out.
Now, Valeria Levitin holds the belief that a conventional doctor’s intervention will bring a cure, having witnessed no weight gain despite numerous specialist visits.
Instead, she asserts that the issue revolves around a ‘lack of harmony between body and soul.’
Valeria now relies on supplements to mitigate the risk of bruising and she steers clear of situations that may lead to falls.
She contemplates returning to Moscow, where she feels more in tune with herself, to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a mother through surrogacy.
The desire for a child could catalyze reclaiming her health, she suggests. Achieving good health is a goal she believes she can attain while working towards becoming a mother.
The world’s thinnest woman expressed her desire for a family, emphasizing, “I would love to have a family because I feel I have so much to give. But obviously, it wouldn’t be right to have a baby when I am ill. It wouldn’t be fair to the child. I want to stand up to anorexia. I’ve never given up on anything in my life and I’m not about to give up now.”