Valeria Levitin: The World’s Thinnest Woman Speaks Out Against Anorexia and Shares Her Struggles
Valeria Levitin, known as the world’s thinnest woman, weighs just four stone (56 pounds) after enduring years of extreme dieting, far below the healthy weight range for her height of 5ft 8in. According to NHS guidelines, she should ideally weigh between 9 and 12 stone (126-168 pounds). Despite her severe condition, Levitin is vocal in warning young girls against striving for such thinness, urging society to recognize the dangers of eating disorders.
At 39, Levitin told The Sun, “I receive emails from young girls who want me to teach them how to be like me. All the letters I get are from women, mainly in their twenties, who see me as some kind of inspiration.”
In response to these messages, Levitin courageously confronts her illness and campaigns against anorexia, refusing to guide anyone toward what she calls a path to self-destruction.
Having struggled with an eating disorder since adolescence, Valeria is now sharing the profound effects of her condition to deter others from a similar fate. She describes her battle with anorexia as leaving her “lonely, unattractive, and repulsive to the people around me.”
Valeria’s troubles began in childhood, influenced by her mother’s fear of obesity, which ran in the family. This led to strict dietary controls from a young age, with her mother meticulously monitoring her weight.
At 16, Valeria moved to Chicago with her parents, weighing 10 stone. Eager to fit in at her new school, she believed that losing weight would make her more accepted and popular. This belief prompted her to severely restrict her diet, cutting out sugar and carbohydrates entirely.
Ironically, her long-term avoidance of certain foods has now made them intolerable to her body. A cruel remark from a classmate about her figure intensified her determination to lose weight. She recalled, “We were playing football, and a man said, ‘I know how we can win. We need to put Valeria’s big arse in the goal.’ It shattered my whole world.”
By the age of 23, Valeria’s dress size had dropped from a healthy 12 to a mere 6. Pursuing a modeling career only exacerbated her condition; despite her thinness, she was told she was still too fat. By 24, she weighed just six stone (84 pounds) and was prohibited from dancing due to the risk of injury.
Over the next decade, Valeria sought help from more than 30 health specialists, reaching a critical low of 3 stone 10 pounds (52 pounds). Even if she wanted to eat certain foods today, her body can’t tolerate them. Her prolonged abstinence from bread is so extreme that she can’t even recall its taste.
Her illness has led to a life of isolation. She has been unattached for ten years and finds relationships challenging, unable to partake in typical couple activities like dining out. Valeria believes that conventional medical intervention won’t cure her, as she has seen no weight gain despite numerous specialist consultations. Instead, she attributes her condition to a “lack of harmony between body and soul.”
Currently, she relies on supplements to prevent bruising and avoids situations where she might fall. She is considering moving back to Moscow, where she feels a stronger connection, and dreams of becoming a mother through surrogacy.
Valeria hopes that the desire to have a child will motivate her to reclaim her health. Achieving good health is a goal she believes she can reach while striving to become a mother.
Expressing her yearning for a family, she said, “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.”
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