Latest News: 26-03-2007
Hollyoaks Eating Disorder Storyline
There is a new Hollyoaks eating disorder storyline. Hannah Ashworth (played by Emma Rigby) is a character in the Channel 4 teenage drama and soap opera, which is set in Chester, Cheshire, England.
Having recently moved to the area with her family, she attends Hollyoaks Community College.
The revelation that her boyfriend, John Paul McQueen, is gay marks the most recent in a string of stressful events that have plagued the teenager since moving to Hollyoaks.
Hannah’s confidence is now at an all-time low, having convinced herself that it is her own repulsiveness that has ‘turned’ John Paul and that she is just not pretty enough.
Recent scenes have shown her obsessively checking herself in the mirror, pinching the skin around her stomach while grimacing in disgust at what she perceives to be a double chin.
This is usually followed by a tearful binge eating session, which sometimes precedes self-induced vomiting.
One particularly notable episode was centred around New Year’s Eve, where Hannah was seen sitting alone at home feeling confused, miserable and rejected, and bingeing on enormous amounts of food to comfort herself. She then threw it all up.
We are watching Hannah decline into a destructive, vicious cycle of bingeing and purging as she struggles to cope with her emotions.
This is something many eating disorder sufferers and their friends and families will identify with. Hopefully this storyline will encourage more people to seek help.
Here lies a great opportunity for the shows creators to raise awareness of eating disorders, and viewers will appreciate how serious, destructive, unglamorous and deadly these diseases really are.
Hollyoaks has a reputation for tackling sensitive and controversial storylines, and has included subjects such as male rape, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy and abortion.
You can catch Hollyoaks at 18:30 on Channel 4 each weekday, and at 19:00 on E4’s ‘First Look’ (a preview of the following day’s episode). An omnibus edition is shown at weekends.