Beautiful Girl

i think it's about a girl struggling with an eating disorder

Actually, it is about an eating disorders. I saw him play it live earlier this year and he introduced it by saying: "This is a song about... well... anorexia."

I have my own opinion of what this song means, but I would like to see someone else's ideas first... Post people!

Just because it says "purging" and "weight" means it's about eating disorders? You should look at the context of how it's used. I also believe it's about depression or somebody struggling with life.

To me, those interpretation about depression or an eating disorder are way too deep. I think that William simply wrote this song for a lovely girl, to show her how wonderful this life is and that she can go far with her beauty and intelligence, even though she is sad sometimes. That is all :)

i believe that the girl he speaks of is planet earth and the desire to rid itself of her worst problems, humanity

The song is definitely about eating disorders. Word choice is important when writing a song, and it isn't difficult to tell at all what he's talking about. When he says beautiful girl, it isn't a compliment. It's comfort. She feels ugly. I can tell this by his constant repetition of the word paired with an observant tone. When he says let the sunrise come again. What does that imply? It implies that it is night time. Darkness, blackness. The implications of a sunrise would be the clearing out of the blackness in her. Also, an anorexic does not get the necessary nutrients to survive. Without certain nutrients, our skin starts to fail and we age faster. ie a distant fuller skin. The weight of the world is not neccessarily her weight or tied to that at all. What it is saying is he wishes her to be relieved of all the pressure she feels to fit in and to be skinny. That's how I see it at least. And this isn't digging deep at all.