Pro-Ana, Pro-Mia, and Pro-ED sites are becoming more and more popular with teenagers with eating disorders.

Pro-Ana, Mia, and ED sites encourage lifestyles lived by individuals with Eating Disorders (ED) like anorexia (Ana) and bulimia (Mia).

These websites offer tips and tricks for people who are trying to lose weight; but these are not your average weight-loss sites. According to a study done by Johns Hopkins, there were over 180 websites discovered on the web by just simply searching “Pro-Anorexia” or “thin and support.”

While some websites claim they are just a community for recovering individuals with eating disorders, only a few offered any advice on recovery and offered more harmful ideas about how to “get thin.”

One website, gettingthinsoon.com, is a blog about two friends sharing their experience with “getting thin.” Their site gave tips on how to balance your diet between water, coffee, diet pills, coffee, cigarettes and food, with water being the largest priority and food being the least important on the weight-loss pyramid.

According to the American Journal of Psychology, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate out of any mental illness, and the mortality rate associated with anorexia is 12 times higher than the death rate of any other causes of death for females ages 15-24.

The study also states that 81 percent of ten year-olds believe that they are not skinny enough, and 41 percent of first-third graders want to be thinner.

Advocates are trying to get these harmful websites pulled from the net and warn parents and close friends to watch what their loved-ones are searching on the web and paying attention to their daily habits.

Little amounts of eating and excessive amounts of exercising are often signs that someone may have an eating disorder.

Those who would like to seek help for themselves or an individual who they believe has an eating disorder, they can start by visiting the National Association Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders website at www.anad.org.