14 DAY TRIAL // Few are those who could ever forget the catchy “The Cheeky Song,” like it or not. Even fewer can erase from their memory the tacky and often embarrassing outfits of the Romanian twins who broke on the international market with the above-mentioned song a few years back. Now, the two girls are all grown up and ready to use their own example, no matter how painful, to tell young girls they should never allow themselves to be deceived or blinded by celebrity culture.
Speaking with the Daily Mail prior to the release of their cosmetics line, which mostly targets teens, Monica and Gabriela Irimia open for the first time and detail their long struggle with anorexia nervosa, when, pressured from all sides to look good, the girls stopped eating and started losing weight. For over a year, they managed to hide their condition from their mother and step father, during which time they survived on less than 500 calories a day and had reached a point where they counted all calories and would work out at least two hours.
The condition eventually led to health problems they completely ignored because they wanted to be slim so badly: they started losing their hair, their periods stopped, one developed kidney stones, while the other got ulcer and suffered from severe heartburn. Although the twins had not made a pact to cover each other’s back, they did so almost unwillingly, knowing the discovery of either of them would mean the other’s secret would also be out in the open. What’s even worse, the twins now recall, they were not even aware they were destroying their bodies, as, at one point, they were barely able to think properly.
“Don’t believe celebrities who say they are naturally skinny yet look so thin that their bones stick out. They’re lying.” Monica tells the Mail. “We knew we had a big problem but although we didn’t coerce one another into not eating, we knew we would cover up for the other if necessary. I would wake up so hungry that I had stomach pains. I would eat my cereal, do my exercise and feel it was a big achievement to go to bed hungry. I didn’t want to sleep though, as I was happy to burn three calories per hour by being awake, if I could.” she further says. All this time, her sister Gabriela turned to laxatives to get the flat abdomen she wanted.
Their hair began to fall shortly after that, while their entire body was suddenly covered with a fine down and their skin turned a disagreeable, yellowish hue. Gabriela was the first to allow her mother to help her by agreeing to eat more and socialize again, with Monica following her example in just weeks. The girls are now a very fit size 10 and enjoy life to the fullest, yet they would hate it if their example was not seen as a clear warning for all those teens out there who think strict portion control and starvation are key.
“It’s true that anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric condition and happens for different reasons, but teenagers, in particular, are so influenced by skinny celebrities and want to copy them. We want to get this message across to the young girls the Cheeky Girls Collection is aimed at. We want to let them know we have been down that road and suffered the consequences. Once anorexic you always have an awareness of what you are eating but now we can control this so it doesn’t control us. We don’t want vulnerable young women to make the same mistake that we did.” Monica concludes by saying.