Freelee the Banana Girl has released a new cleanse - and experts aren't recommending it.

In reference to 'Concerned Parent' ... this. Myself, I follow a semi-paleo diet, and came across Freelee/Leanne (& her crayon box short of a couple of colours boyfriend, Harley) on IG while looking for some vegetarian recipes. So I fell into the vegan world of instagrammers, with Freelee popping up as a link or a hashtag in most of their posts. My first instinct about this girl was that she seemed amateur, disingenuous, attention seeking and full of s**t. However, that is not my issue with this girl. Looking at her devoted follower's feeds was an utter education. To say I was shocked was an understatement. It literally began to take the breath from me as I looked at bowl after bowl of fruit, seeds and 'nice cream' (frozen blended bananas), and fruit, fruit, fruit. Then all the bikini shots, food shots, waist shots, food prep shots, butt shots, leg shots, tummy shots - every photo in their feed demonstrating a clear obsession with food, body image and controlling what they eat and how much. As far as I know, from much reading, this is classic eating disorder behaviour. Reading the comments in these girls feeds gets worse - they're all normalising and backing one anothers' views up. They ask one another (and worse, ask these seeming celebrity IGers with no quals or responsibility, such as Freelee) about how to convince parents of their lifestyle, how to convince and convert friends, how to hide what you're doing if your friends/family don't support you, etc. Freelee and her ilk provide all sorts of advice on not trusting parents, doctors, nutritionists, science, studies, evidence - apparently all of this is simply a conspiracy devised by the dairy and beef industries. Freelee states this is all about 'the animals', and for her that may be true (I doubt it, she is obsessed with her image and posts it everywhere she's found a medium in which to do so - YouTube, IG, Facebook, Twitter. It much easier to find posts on her self-created dramas with other YouTubers, or her discussing weight loss or tantric sex, than it is finding her posts about animals). But I got the distinct sense that for most of these impressionable young girls obsessed with Freelee and her 'diet', the welfare of animals is a very handy ruse to justify controlled and restrictive eating habits, as food, exercise and weight seems to be their focus of discussion, not the food industry or our society's treatment of animals. I'm not a mother, but I can only imagine the panic and hopelessness that parents must feel when they realise what they're up against, especially when people like Freelee are EVERYwhere their kids are. Its not reasonable or practical for parents to keep teens away from the internet and the reach of these people, who are only interested in clicks and followers (and anything that polarises and increases views of their medias) as it pays for their 'do nothing' lifestyles, where they can flit back and forth between the Gold Coast and Thailand eating fruit, riding their bikes and posting bikini shots. I am sad to say I don't know what the answer is. The genie is out of the bottle with social medias themselves, run by 20 something blokes who have zero interest in women's health or welfare), there is no incentive for them to restrict this content. Asking a government of ageing men who don't understand the internet, let alone women, is a total waste of time. Its not the realm of police. So what do we do? These self-interested, narcissistic, aggressive, cult leaders need to be stopped somehow.

I do battle with Freelee every day but I've never engaged in any form of conversation with her.

My battle with Freelee is through my teenage daughter who has an eating disorder and is now taking everything Freelee says as gospel.

What Freelee has to say is extremely dangerous for teenagers who are often vulnerable to this type of messaging, delivered in the format she delivers it in.

For example, Freelee has criticised the use of chemo treatment and says that menstruation is unnecessary.

Freelee's extreme form of eating is all about elimination. This latest idea of reducing avocado, tofu and nuts for vegans (especially when you encourage people to take things to the extreme) is incredibly irresponsible, especially as these are foods that can really help vegans reach the levels of nutrition they need to - especially when they are in growing bodies.

Being a vegan is an honourable position but being vegan properly is hard work. All of the responsible literature focuses on the need for vegans to focus on what needs to be in their diet to maintain their health.

I suspect there are many parents out there struggling with this and have come to this page as I'm searching for answers as to how to deal with this problem.

I worry that in 10 years time we will be dealing with the consequences of this diet. It has to be taking a toll on my daughter's growing body.

Freelee is also, quite frankly, a plain bully. She is a really poor role model with the forms of intimidation she uses against people who question her.

I think it's also important that she is referred to both by her stage name (and yes, it absolutely is a stage name) and her real name, which is Leanne Ratcliffe.