Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl

by Anna Rollins

A groundbreaking debut memoir that examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites
Raised Baptist in an insular Appalachian community, Anna Rollins learned early that among the world's many dangers, her own body loomed large. So, she dedicated herself to keeping it small—strictly controlling her calories and exercising to the point of exhaustion while murmuring some version of the "We must decrease so that He can increase."
She was picking up a similar mantra "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." To be a Christian woman was to be thin and chaste, sidestepping any pleasures of the flesh that would cause you—or a brother in Christ—to stumble into sin. But thinness was also a sign of virtue to the outside world. By day, Rollins attended schools and churches where male pastors and older women policed female bodies. By night, she scrolled websites and chat rooms where dieting itself inspired a kind of religious devotion.
Despite Rollins's piety, anger grew in her chest. "I was all hunger, all need. I was ashamed. But I was also proud. I knew that I was also physical, embodied, a person with desires, despite how frequently I was told that I was not."
Still, it wasn't until she found herself obsessing over how she would burn off the pasta she ate for dinner while watching her infant son struggle to breathe in the ICU that Rollins
could admit to herself the extent to which she'd bought into the false promises of both purity and diet That if she controlled her appetites, she would be righteous. That if she made herself smaller, she would be safe.
Blending memoir, research, and reporting, Famished untangles these lies and encourages women to reclaim their appetites for life, love, and food, both physical and spiritual. Interweaving her own story of disordered eating and sexual dysfunction with those of other women she interviews, Rollins discovers a sisterhood committed to finding freedom from body shame. Along the way she rewrites her own body's story to include a purpose much greater than its size or parts or the roles she fills as daughter, wife, and mother, a body well-loved by her and beloved by God.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Christian, Adult, Spirituality

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 9, 2025

About the author

Anna Rollins is the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl (out December 9, 2025 from Eerdmans). Her groundbreaking debut memoir examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites. Her writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland, and more. She’s also written scholarly articles about composition and writing center studies. She’s an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years. She is a 2025 Tamarack Foundation for the Arts Literary Arts Fellow. A lifelong Appalachian, she lives with her husband in West Virginia where they’re raising their three small children. Follow her on Instagram or Substack @annajrollins or at http://annajrollins.com

Reviews

[Camden Morgante · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her memoir Famished, Anna Rollins traces the connection between purity culture and diet culture in her own experience of vaginismus, disordered eating, and scrupulosity (religious OCD). This is a connection that other resources have not fully explored, so I was excited to learn from Anna's experience. I know how body image and disembodiment come up again and again when I am doing purity culture recovery work with clients. Indeed, in Famished, Anna writes that “when women worked to heal from body shame, their relationship to religious was intricately involved.” Weaving together her own story, interviews with other women, and some historical research, she describes the rhyming scripts between diet culture and purity culture. There was not as much resolution as I would have liked, but that is real life, and I feel some avenues of mental illness were not fully explored, likely due to space. At times the historical research felt like an after-thought that was pasted into the personal story later, rather than a seamless flow. Nevertheless, personal stories are impactful to illustrate the real-life harm of these cultures, and I am grateful to Anna for sharing her story with us here.

[Anna Hohmeier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book in a day. Anna writes with incredible, awe-inspiring honesty. Reading this book will make you wonder, ask questions, get angry in solidarity, and feel seen. You may not arrive at specific answers to questions about purity culture, disordered eating, and faith—though you will probably nod in agreement as she tells her story and weaves these topics into research that tell a broader story in our culture today (especially American evangelicalism).

I was surprised and delighted when my social media feed started promoting a book by a name and face that felt familiar. I realized Anna is a friend of my sister’s from college. And—with literally no context of Anna’s professional life—I knew this book would be good. I can’t recall specific interactions with her, but I remembered her kindness to a weird teenager (ahem, me) while she was visiting my family’s home. I think even that distant memory of my sister and her friend coming to visit for a weekend led me to respond with curiosity, confidence and delight in her book speaks to her character. Thank you, Anna, for the gift of this book!

[Ericka Andersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written memoir, relevant and important for any woman who grew up in the 80s/90s/2000s. Anna’s writing is truly exceptional. As someone who grew up very similarly, I found it relatable and an important commentary on the history of this demographic and time period.

[Eady Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this deeply vulnerable memoir, Anna shares her struggles with under-eating and over-exercising to maintain beauty standards presented by Western culture and supported by Evangelical purity culture. The idea is that women should shrink themselves, suppressing appetites for both food and sex, so that, on the one hand they are beautiful enough to attract a married sex life, and on the other hand, they become invisible enough to play a behind-the-scenes role in marriage, church, family etc.

She addresses religious scrupulosity and how many of us need to step away from perfectionism, and religious OCD. She shares about her own grace awakening and her struggles with some of the conservative beliefs she grew up with, particularly on her ongoing journey of healing from disordered eating and exercise compulsion.

Larger people have eating disorders too, often undiagnosed and even encouraged, so Anna talks about HAES: health at every size and how this is a more realistic goal or standard.

There is so much more in this memoir. I appreciate the romance and also the hardship she faced in her marriage and shared with her readers. She delves into the racist roots of purity culture in the United States. I especially appreciate the level of transparency around Anna’s exercise compulsion and disordered eating and think these could be invaluable to readers who have suffered similarly under diet culture!

[Valli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am well-read in eating disorder literature--I have read almost every book Anna Rollins cites within Famished--yet I was still affected by the connections she makes between the evangelical, fundamentalist religion of her youth and her anorexia. I suspect others who experienced religious scrupulosity in childhood will also relate and recognize Rollins's suffering as their own, even if her rituals were different. She takes us through scenes in her childhood and adolescence, in both church and her Christian school, that were benchmarks in the development of her illness. She also discusses how the purity culture messages affected her sex life as well as motherhood. As she isolates herself from others, performs elaborate subterfuge to avoid eating in company, as she obsessively calculates calories in vs. out and can't even enjoy a family vacation because she can't find enough time to work out and work off the food she's eaten, the audience reaches that point that Anna senses yet cannot name aloud: She is ill. She needs help. Her ED has imprisoned her. And her religion has imprisoned her as well, a cage within a cage. Yet Rollins finds hope and the courage to name her disorder and seek help. She also embraces complications: she doesn't turn her story into a simple testimony or all-wrapped-up redemption story, which I appreciate.

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a remarkable exploration of the long, toxic tentacles purity culture has on women's lives as they go through adolescence and womanhood and often in motherhood. The most compelling part of the memoir for me was the first part about Rollins' girlhood. I was simply amazed at how well and how richly she reconstructed her adolescence within a conservative Christian tradition while suffering from anorexia. Rollins writes thoughtfully, and even though her background as an academic shows in her ability to incorporate relevant research, it did not read heavy-handed to me. I thought her prose was very beautiful at times, and the scene work was memorable. The latter parts that included marriage and motherhood were interesting, but the chapters ran long and got a bit repetitive for me. I know how important Rollins' testimony is, though, and I'm so glad this book interrogates the rotten fruits of purity culture. She offers readers no tidy answers but rather a long and wide view of the origins and residue of a messaging that says women's minds should be big but their bodies and their voices should be small.

I received an ARC from the publisher.

[Casey Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna Rollins has written a clear, often lyrical depiction of the impact purity culture in the more fundamental Evangelical Christian church has on the view a girl, then woman, has of her own body and sense of self. In compelling scenes, Rollins takes us through her journey to self-acceptance as she welcomes us inside the mind of a girl growing up with messages to stay small, both emotionally and physically. Deftly weaving in research, she rounds out her personal journey with discussions of such topics as the history of “the connection between faith and fatphobia,” and how many girls and women, while overtly submissive, grasp for another sort of power—power over their own bodies. Throughout, Rollins remains faithful to her foundational beliefs while examining the negative and often damaging messages she and so many other girls growing up in purity culture receive. Famished is a thoughtful memoir that offers an intimate view of a culture many of us only read about while allowing us to draw our own conclusions about the faith that underlies it all.

[Sarah Flocken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is hands-down the best memoir I have read in a long time. I say this because I had to take a break at several points, while reading, to just…process I recognized so many of the thoughts, behaviors, references Rollins talks about. This book is for you if you grew up being taught that your body was sinful, that women should be small, quiet, and “pure,” but also that your size/attractiveness was the most important thing about you. I started praying to lose weight when I was in elementary school.

Unlike other memoirs, the author really transports us directly into how she feels at every moment she takes us through. It’s very stream-of-consciousness in some parts, and I love writing like that - but if you’re expecting a prescriptive, cut-and-dry story that will tell you how to live, this is not it. But if you want a truly moving, immersive story that will change how you think about what you were taught as a young girl in evangelical spaces and in diet culture? This is it.

[Jocelyn Jane Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna Rollins draws a fascinating connection between her upbringing in Christian Fundamentalism, the perfectionism imparted to women through the scripture and the culture, and her eventual eating disorder combined with a fear of sex, sexuality, and her body in general. Rollins doesn’t provide a quick fix for others in her situation; she shares the difficulty and messiness in the process of recovery. But hope this speckled throughout. Rollin’s wisdom is layered into every page and her societal analysis feels to me both revelatory and spot-on. 

This book speaks to the complexities of being a woman in this country (and in highly regulated communities, religious and otherwise). It highlights how ideologies and pursuits that are supposed to be good for us can sometimes cause harm. I admire how Rollins demonstrates through her example how we can maintain our faith despite it all.

[Mary Ardery · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is written in short vignettes, and reading the book before bed I kept thinking, "Just one more!" I ended up reading the entire first section in a fever dream, now 100+ pages in. Rollins impressively parses scenes from her youth and analyzes the lessons that they taught her about her body, her worth, and how she should/shouldn't take up space in the world. I'm excited to continue reading the next two sections and see where we end up! This book is for anyone who ever had questions or concerns about the cultural norms they were taught, but in childhood/adolescence didn't know how to articulate them—or maybe felt like the cost of voicing those concerns was simply too high a price to pay.

[Sarah Trautwein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Famished is not only a beautifully written, and captivating memoir, but an extremely important exploration of eating disorders, image, faith, religion, and the Appalachian region. Rollins brings incredible honesty to her story in a way that doesn't blame or patronize those around her. I couldn't put the memoir down as I laughed, smiled, and cried alongside of her journey and thoughts. Rollins shows that eating disorders, body image, faith, and femininity are not always what they seem from the outside. I was taken with how she was able to examine and scrutinize her own beliefs while also staying true to herself and her extremally honest voice. This memoir is a masterclass in authentic voice, form, and storytelling.

[Amre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have known Anna for years and was thrilled when I learned she had this book coming out.

Famished offers an insider’s view of evangelical Christianity for people who are outside it and often deeply puzzled by it, as I am. I was amazed by the way she deconstructs so much of the culture she grew up with, and I found her discussion and examples of the continual surveillance of women’s bodies that so many internalize fascinating. Her book helped me understand the links between Christianity, diet culture, and right-wing politics, and I highly recommend it to anyone seeking to understand many of the religious underpinnings of America's obsession with thinness.

[Mallary Tarpley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is compelling on so many levels. Anna writes beautifully about her experiences, and she tackles topics that we don't typically see in contemporary eating disorder literature, including religion, marriage, motherhood, and more. As someone who has lived experience with anorexia, I appreciate the many ways in which Famished carves out new avenues for conversation and storytelling around aspects of eating disorders that have been largely misunderstood and under-discussed. I hope that people with lived experience, church leaders, medical doctors, caregivers and others will read this incisive book. It's one that I will remember, and continue referring to, for years to come.

[Sarah Canney · Rating 5 out of 5]

As former Evangelical and teen who was entirely bought into 90s purity culture and subsequently struggled with both anorexia and bulimia, I found this memoir to be incredibly resonant. The author's honesty is refreshing; it's about time someone illuminated the connection between purity culture and its negative impact on young women in Evangelical Christian World. This book is a must read for anyone trying to understand a themselves, their past and will spark important conversations for future generations in and outside of the church--no matter what denomination.

[Jacque Gorelick]

Famished is a deeply compelling read about the insidious and overt ways society and religion tell girls to shrink themselves into their smallest form—literally. This thought-provoking memoir explores how diet and purity culture set girls up to turn on their own bodies, doubt their value, and take up as little space as possible. Rollins masterfully braids her personal experience growing up in an evangelical church with cultural research to tell a powerful and ultimately hopeful story of shedding one’s Good Girl skin to live an authentic life.

[Heather Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this smart and insightful book by Anna Rollins, readers are given a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Christian Fundamentalism, disordered eating and sexuality – everything that surrounds purity culture. Rollins seamlessly combines vulnerable personal stories with research and interviews in a cultural commentary that’s timely, brutally honest and infused with hope. I highly recommend Famished!

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read a book like this before--one that connects the high-control damage of both purity culture and diet culture. I could not put this book down. I particularly loved the childhood section, written with searing honesty and devastating attention to detail. This book will help so many people who are caught in these twin webs, or who are trying to recover from growing up in them. Highly recommend!

[Erinsken Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Famished is a searing, compassionate memoir that exposes the shared language of diet culture and evangelical purity culture with remarkable clarity. Anna Rollins writes with honesty, intellect, and tenderness, weaving research and lived experience into a powerful reckoning with body shame. This book is brave, necessary, and deeply affirming, an invitation to reclaim appetite, agency, and embodiment without apology.

[Melissa Fraterrigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone with a history of disordered eating, I thought I was pretty familiar with the premise, but Anna Rollins crushed many of my previous thoughts in her book by arguing that purity culture incites disordered eating and sexual disorders. Her beliefs are clear, well-researched, and insightful. I could not put this book down. Read it--you'll be surprised by all you discover!

[Blair Glaser · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who had an eating disorder and also a very different but rigid religious experience, I deeply related to Rollins' story. Famished is an incredible work of honesty that extends beyond the individual, beyond purity culture, to offer a clear mirror of what our patriarchal, capitalist culture has done to women's ability to be in and relate to their bodies.

[Rebecca Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an interesting and important book. Anna tells us her story but also adds research and history to show how culture and religion can impact in such destructive and emotionally complicated ways women's understanding of themselves and their bodies. It's vulnerable, honest, thorough and beautifully told.

[Mirella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in one day, which is saying a lot because I am the mother of a two year old. This book has it all. If any combination of purity culture, eating disorders (and eating disorder recovery), or perfectionism interest you (throw in a good dose of millennial nostalgia for good measure), then this book is for you.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So tough to read, but so, so good. Really grateful for people like Anna who share what’s it’s like inside of these painful, legalistic communities and what it does to us. I didn’t experience all the same things as Anna, but I’ve seen quite a bit of it and I feel so much love and grief. We’ve gotta do things better and let humans be humans.

[Melanie Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really can't say enough about this one. It hit me hard. If you've grown up in a certain kind of church, I think you'll "like" it. Lots of feelings and much food for thought as the writer makes her way (and interviews others) through purity doctrine and diet culture.

[Carissa Elkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This book touched me so personally. Anna Rollins captivated me with this book - so much so that I finished it in less than 48 hours!! Would HIGHLY recommend to anyone and everyone - especially those who grew up in the 2000s purity/diet culture.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A memoir by a women who grew up in a Southern Baptist subculture in Appalachia, and struggled with exercise bulimia. I resonate with the cultural imperative to be perfect and in control, both as defined by the church and by diet culture. I also resonate with her having to struggle with which parts of her faith to keep, and which parts to discard. I respected her slow acceptance of having an eating disorder, even though it never got to a point that she couldn't deny it publicly.

I am impressed by her willingness to include her husband's story of mental illness, despite his still being a respected physician. He never did anything to put his family or patients at risk (beyond temporarily abandoning them while he received in-patient treatment), and he takes steps to stay healthy, so she never paints him in a truly negative light.

Overall, an excellent read told with nuance and grace.

[Cara Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love me some Anna Rollins, especially when it comes to the tangled intersection of diet and purity culture.

[Alex Yebra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the relatability but disappointing. No new revelations here.

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

[Susanna Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I highlighted more than half of this book.