This paper is a retrospective study of 40 carefully defined cases of anorexia nervosa in adolescents. The illness in adolescence appears similar to that in older patients with regard to most clinical features, an increased referral rate since the 1960s, an upper social class predominance, and the importance of antecedent events. Bingeing and vomiting appear to be relatively rare features of anorexia nervosa in adolescents.