Now this is good because it means we have a reasonably realistic depiction of a teenager with an eating disorder and not only might it help parents who find themselves with a child with an eating disorder but also teenagers dealing with it as well.
It makes the character and the drama feel real rather than forced and with the tone of the movie being quiet rather than sensationalist it also adds to the sense of reality. Instead "Sharing the Secret" gives us Beth who feels like a character built around one real teenager and as such we see a handful of elements to do with her situation, from the binge eating away from others to the vomiting and techniques to cover up what she is doing. But the thing this made for TV does right is not trying to cover all the things I witnessed as so many movies do and by doing so they end up feeling manufactured. I have had two friends who both had eating disorders and watching "Sharing the Secret" brought back memories of how they behaved. In fact she gets very good at hiding her eating disorder, that is until she starts to pass out and others start to notice how she is looking.
But that is far from the truth as Beth has a secret eating disorder it is the one thing which she feels she can control in her life as she tries to be everything that each parent wants. To everyone Beth ( Alison Lohman - Flicka) seems a normal teenager good at school, good at ballet and despite her parents being divorced seems happy spending time with both of them.