Melissa Avrin went through the Montville school system, but went to a therapeutic boarding school her senior year because an eating disorder was controlling her life.

Her battle with bulimia began at the age of 14. She lost her life to the eating disorder in May 2009. She was 19.

An aspiring filmmaker, Avrin kept a journal. In the year before she died, she wrote an entry that inspired her mom, Judy Avrin, to create a film about her daughter's life:

Someday...
I’ll eat breakfast.
I’ll keep a job for more than 3 weeks.
I’ll have a boyfriend for more than 10 days.
I’ll love someone.
I’ll travel wherever I want.
I’ll make my family proud.
I’ll make a movie that will change lives.

Much has happened since the screening of an early version of the documentary, "Someday Melissa: The Story of an Eating Disorder, Loss and Hope," in Montclair in March, most significantly the release of the film on DVD, Judy Avrin said. The film's creators also re-edited the beginning and end of the film, scored new music, hired two part-time staffers, launched a new website and created new poster art.

Someday Melissa became a member of the National Eating Disorders Association Network, a group of 15 non-profit eating disorder advocacy and awareness organizations across the country. The nonprofit exhibited at the NYC NEDA Walk in Foley Square on Oct. 2 and at NEDA's annual conference in Los Angeles last week, said Avrin, who now lives in Totowa. (Photos from both events are on their Facebook page.)

"However, the big thing is indeed the release of the DVD," Avrin said. "Since it became available at the end of September, we have received orders from across the country and around the world: Mexico, Argentina, Germany, England, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and more. I continue to receive hundreds of messages from girls and boys, women and men—yes, increasingly from males struggling with eating disorders—thanking me for speaking out against eating disorders and bulimia in particular.

"There was a Facebook posting from a girl yesterday who wrote: 'I broke down with the dvd last night. will watch again with my therapist. so sad and so inspiring at the same time to stay in recovery.' It's very humbling. I'm very grateful that Melissa's story is having such a profound impact and it helps give some meaning to losing her."

Norwood Patch recently wrapped up a series about eating disorders with a piece about Someday Melissa:

Melissa's mother, Judy Avrin discovered her daughter's journal during the throes of unimaginable grief, but she made a commitment to make Melissa’s dream come true.

During the last three years Judy has not only worked tirelessly on her daughter’s dream of making a movie that will change lives—a documentary film based on Melissa’s journal entries—but she has been advocating, educating and supporting sufferers and loved ones in the battle against eating disorders.

Read the entire piece here.