CAROLINE, from Nottingham, is 22. She's been clubbing most weekends for the last three years and is a regular at Gatecrasher, Cream and Moneypenny's. She's a size ten "or eight on a good day" but she doesn't exercise - apart from dancing - and sits down all day in her job as a receptionist. Caroline keeps her weight down not by following a healthy diet, but by taking drugs. Enough drugs, that is, not just to fuel her nights out but to keep her from the fridge on her days in. "I've always done speed when I've gone out, purely because it's cheap, and mainly because I get a buzz off the fact that it makes me lose weight," she says. "I've been doing it for about two and half years. I noticed after a couple of weeks of doing it that I was losing weight because even when I ate after a comedown I didn't want much. My stomach literally began to shrink and I thought, 'What an easy way to lose a bit of weight.' It's kind of a routine now and if I feel a bit porky in the week I'll have another bit to stop me eating for a day." Caroline is the kind of girl who attracts double-takes from men and dirty looks from their girlfriends. Until they get up close, that is, or the lights come on. Then you'll notice she looks ten years older than she is, and what looked like a perfect figure is actually a bag of bones which would look better with some flesh around them. As for her skin, it's not exactly like a baby's - unless you know any babies with dry, flaky blemishes, a distinctly grey pallor and huge, dark circles under their eyes. Caroline admits most people have her down for 30, not 22, but this doesn't concern her. "I'd rather look a bit tired than look lardy," she laughs. "You can't go out on a Saturday night looking shit, can you? Or fat, even worse. I feel rough on Sundays and Mondays but I'm a temp so I can take the day off if I need to. I know I'm no supermodel or anything but I look in the mirror and think I look good. I wouldn't go out otherwise. Most of my mates do the same. I can't think of anything worse than not being able to fit into hot pants and all my little tops, bursting out all over the place. I'd rather stay in." Caroline and her mates aren't by only means the only women who do this. Take a good look around almost any club and there'll be women in bikini tops and hipsters, tiny skirts or see-through dresses and you can bet your life not one of them will be overweight. In a world where you can turn up at the door of a club in nothing more than a G-string and a couple of Post-It notes, it won't do to turn up looking fat. "Women are fed these images which don't bear any resemblance to reality," says Alan Haughton, from Manchester-based drugs agency Lifeline. "They're told they should look a certain way and they do their best to change their shape and their looks to fit that image. Some women take the view that they're not all meant to be a size ten and aren't bothered by it, but for others, who believe they simply have to have the right image, it can be very dangerous." Pick up a copy of any style magazine and you're confronted with the kind of images Haughton refers to, of models' glazed expressions highlighted by dark eyes, ghostly white skin and lank hair - in a nutshell, models who look like heroin addicts. If you believe the stories, some of them may well be heroin addicts. Most women don't aspire to look like this, but if you're not already a convert of the blue-eyed, blonde-haired, brown-skinned 'babe' look which still dominates the club scene, then it seems the 'smack-head' look is your only other alternative. None of us want to feel out of place, ugly or uncomfortable when we're out clubbing but the pressure is on - dress up or stay at home. And if door policies deem it necessary to queue in the cold for an hour in clothes which would fit a rabbit, then we'll do it. The only problems most of us encounter is finding a warm enough coat to stand outside in, somewhere to put it once you get in and making sure you don't fall out of your bikini. There are the lucky ones, who eat what they like, wear what they like and no matter how hot a club is, never get all sweaty or frizzy-haired. The kind of woman your boyfriend can't stop staring at while you find yourself taking sneaky glances at her to see if she's holding her stomach in or has cellulite on her backside. Most of us can accept that we're never going to look like that and make the best of what God gave us - frizzy hair, rounded stomachs and all. It's normal. It's not ugly. We know that. Everyone knows that. Well, everyone apart from girls like Caroline, whose desire to emulate these glamour girls takes over their lives.