The Best Little Girl in the World is a 1981 television film directed by Sam O'Steen and executive produced by Aaron Spelling.

[citation needed] Seventeen-year-old Casey Powell is a shy teenaged cheerleader who gets good grades and dreams of being a professional ballet dancer.

Her parents, Frank and Joanne, give all their attention to her 19-year-old sister Gail, who has just found out she is pregnant by someone she has no interest in marrying.

Feeling ignored by her parents and embarrassed by harassment at her cheerleading audition, Casey starts wanting to look like the models on the covers of magazines and begins to diet and exercise.

Casey's parents ignore her dream of becoming a professional dancer and instead want her to graduate high school, get a good job, and then become a wife and mother.

Over the next two months, Casey's illness progresses as she throws herself into dieting and ballet dancing which causes Gail to worry that something is wrong with her.

Because her parents took away her diet pills and laxatives, Casey attempts to steal more from the pharmacy the next day; however, she is caught and arrested.

In a turning point, she tells her doctor, Clay Orlovsky, that she is afraid to die as well; he assures her that she won't, but only if she starts being honest with him and makes a genuine effort to recover.

[2] Jennifer Jason Leigh replaced Jodie Foster, who was at one point assigned to play the lead.