During her sophomore year, Cowden joined the crew team and her naturally lithe figure began to bulk up. By the following year, she grew tired of the 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls and left the squad. However, her appetite continued as if she were training and her muscular physique began to turn to fat. She started dieting and skipping meals, but it wasn't really a problem, at least that's what she told herself. The summer before her senior year, Cowden landed an internship with a veteran entertainment reporter at the local NBC television affiliate in Philadelphia. In just those few short months, she realized that she no longer wanted to pursue her chosen career path. Faced without a direction in life, Cowden felt lost and disillusioned.

"This really was the beginning of my problems," Cowden confessed. "Time was moving on and I had no control over it. I was about to enter my senior year of college and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life." She wasn't eating enough and she still didn't see it as a problem. "I was in complete denial the first year (of anorexia)."

To help offset some of the costs of school, Cowden started modeling in her senior year. After graduation in 1995, she moved to New York City and worked steadily in the modeling world. "The whole lifestyle was so unhealthy. When I wasn't working, I was up partying all night and then I'd sleep all day. I used drugs recreationally and cocaine fueled my eating disorder."

Her mother organized an intervention, but Cowden wasn't ready to get healthy yet. "It was obvious to everyone except me that I had a problem," explained Cowden. "My parents sent me to a treatment facility where I underwent group counseling. The problem with that was that the patients traded secrets about getting away with your eating disorder. It's common, but you actually end up learning how to better conceal your illness."

Over a five-year period, Cowden saw four different doctors while battling her eating disorders (she stopped using drugs on her own). No longer able to work as a model, Cowden got into the production end of music videos and television commercials, working on high profile projects with No Doubt, Julio Iglesias and Visa. In 1997, she moved to Los Angeles, California where she continued her work in that field. "Somehow I was functional throughout my illness. I was doing pretty well with work, but it wasn't my passion."