Frozen is not just a film about a magical princess, a happy snowman and an adorably dopey reindeer.

It can also be read as a parable for recovering from an eating disorder, according to one academic who has been studying the film.

Dr Su Holmes, from the University of East Anglia, who struggled with anorexia herself, was watching Elsa sing Let it Go when she thought to herself: "Is it just me or does this song seem to parallel my own recovery?"

After tentatively putting the search terms into Google she realised she wasn't alone.

"Quite a big reading of it in this way had occurred on the internet across fan fiction, across blogs of people who had recovered who were writing similar things to the thoughts I was having."

In the film, magical Princess Elsa has powers to control ice and snow. Her parents discover this power and worry she could be dangerous. The castle is locked and she is encouraged to hide away, both emotionally and physically.

After losing her temper at her coronation and accidentally revealing she can create ice and snow, Elsa runs away and while singing Let It Go unleashes her powers freely and builds herself a remote ice palace to live in.

Thousands of comments are made on sites promoting anorexia where people with eating disorders discussed how they identified with Elsa's experiences, according to Holmes.

"There were two key groups," said Dr Holmes.

"The first circled around Let It Go because in the song Elsa talks a lot about the pressures around being the perfect girl and the need to break free from those repressions.

"There's been a long history about anorexia developing in so called 'good' or 'perfect' girls and that it's associated with societal and parental pressures.

"They were saying things like 'Omg I identified so much with girl and her desire to not have to be the perfect girl and not be the good girl that you always have to be', this is so much like what's happened with my anorexia."

She said the second group used Elsa to motivate them to eat even less.

"They used the same lyrics about the perfect girl in completely contrary ways. They said 'Yeah, this is exactly how I felt when my mum found out about the anorexia. And I thought I'm not going to be the perfect girl anymore'."

This wasn't the only connection she found between Frozen and anorexia.

"The idea of anorexia and its association with cold and wintriness is really complex. The idea that anorexics are often literally cold, they are isolated, and many of your emotions and sexual desires shut down."

There is no suggestion that Frozen is in any way causing eating disorders.

"These people were already anorexic and they were interested in the film.

"There is a lot of mainstream media that displays very very thin bodies and that is part of the culture in which we live.

"I wouldn't isolate Frozen in that regard any more than I would isolate Tangled or Cinderella or Snow White. That is a much wider issue in society.

"What I really found from working on this site is that what people were looking for was identification.

"They wanted to see people like them on screen and it was very meaningful for them in that regard. I don't think I would cast it as dangerous I think that's a much broader cultural question about the kind of media that young girls and women consume."

Beat, the eating disorder charity, told Newsbeat: "Eating disorders are by their very nature complex and have multi-causal factors.

"Many people who suffer also have perfectionistic personalities - often striving for the unattainable.

"We know from the way eating disorders are often portrayed in the media, how triggering images and text can be and Beat campaigns constantly to educate and inform that perpetuating the sensationalist side of these illnesses is dangerous and can have serious consequences."

You can get advice on eating disorders here.

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