Valeria is anorexic. Valeria Levitin

  • 18.04.2024

39-year-old Valeria Levitin is familiar firsthand with the nightmare that anorexia can turn life into; she herself suffers from a whole bunch of health problems. Oddly enough, even despite the fact that Levitin looks like a prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp, some young girls manage to perceive her as a role model and idol. Levitin is simply horrified by such short-sightedness - she does not understand how someone can hate their own body so much.

The roots of Valeria Levitin’s disease lie at a relatively young age. From an early age, the girl ate a fairly strict diet - Valeria’s mother was afraid that her daughter would grow up too fat, like many of their relatives. For the same reason, Valeria often weighed herself - in order to make sure that excess weight could not creep up to her waist unnoticed.

At the age of 16, Valeria, who at the time weighed 10 stone (approximately 63 kilograms), moved with her parents to Chicago. Alas, the girl failed to find friends at the new school; Levitin decided that the reason for this was excess weight - and moved to an even more strict diet. Valeria categorically excluded sugar and carbohydrates from her diet; over time, by the way, her body categorically forgot how to process these products - and now Levitin simply cannot start eating them.

Classmates, meanwhile, continued to joke about the girl - and joked quite cruelly; this further confirmed Valeria’s fantasies about her incredible thickness and desire to lose almost non-existent excess weight.

By the age of 23, Valeria had almost doubled her weight - instead of dresses in size 12, she had to switch to size 6. Levitin dreamed of becoming a model - but then another blow awaited her; the girl was told that she still weighed too much. Valeria continued to torture herself - and soon she began to develop really serious health problems; So, at the age of 24, Levitin was forbidden to dance - by that time Valeria weighed about 40 kilograms and could easily be accidentally injured from any careless movement.

Over the next 10 years, Levitin actively communicated with various types of doctors and healthy nutrition specialists; alas, this did not affect her health - the weight continued to fall. At a certain point, Levitin’s weight dropped to a critical level - 23.5 kilograms.

To some, Valeria’s problems may seem far-fetched - really, if she doesn’t want to lose any more weight, she just needs to start eating properly; Sweets, flour and fatty foods will easily help you gain weight without much effort. Alas, everything is not so simple - after many years of strict diets, Valeria simply cannot eat such food; her body simply doesn’t understand what to do with such products. You should not neglect the purely psychological aspect - the cornerstone component of all diseases of this kind. Valeria herself admits that her main problem is the lack of harmony between soul and body; Now the woman is thinking about returning to her homeland, Moscow - perhaps there she can feel better.

Valeria can truly serve as a kind of example for all young girls who are too sensitive about their own weight - Levitin’s story teaches us that too tight control over one’s own body can lead to truly catastrophic consequences. Not everyone, unfortunately, understands this - in some letters, new Levitin fans complain that they cannot lose as much weight as she was able to; Valeria, however, hopes that with her example she can still force at least someone to take the right path and stop hating their body.

The death of it-girl and TV presenter Peaches Geldof has become a sensation this week. Although doctors called the incident inexplicable and sudden, the girl’s relatives claim that she was suffering from anorexia. We remember 7 more media characters who died from a terrible disease.

(Total 6 photos)

1. A 25-year-old British journalist, TV presenter and model was found dead at home on April 7. Experts named anorexia as one of the causes of death. Friends of the TV presenter confirm that Peaches has been into juice diets for the last year.

2. A favorite of Dior during the time of John Galliano, Brazilian model Anna Carolina Reston, who ate only apples and tomatoes, died at the age of 22. Her last work was an advertising company for Giorgio Armani - the brand persistently invited the model to collaborate, even when her weight was less than 40 kg and her height was 174 cm.

3. Hila Elmaliah In the nineties, Hila was a popular Israeli model on the world catwalk. The disease appeared in the girl at the age of 21, and accompanied her for another 13 years. As a result, on her 34th birthday, the 21 kg supermodel died.

4. The most media-loving twins with anorexia also worked as doctors. Sisters Maria and Katie staged a 22-year competition. The goal is to become thinner than your opponent. As a result, the competition ended in death for both.

5. It is not surprising that most of the victims of anorexia are models from the early 2000s, when the trend was considered to be “heroin chic.” This is how the sisters Luisel and Eliana Ramos contracted the occupational disease. The eldest, Elina, lost consciousness right on the catwalk during Fashion Week, and soon died. The 18-year-old youngest died of exhaustion six months later.

6. Unlike previous models, Frenchwoman Isabelle Caro's anorexia is not the result of her modeling career. The girl suffered from a severe form of the disease from the age of 13, and began working as a model with a photo shoot by Oliviero Toscani “No Anorexia”, in which the 28-kilogram Isabelle poses naked. By the way, one of the goals of such social advertising is to stop top models losing weight.

Valeria is now 39 years old. In fear of gaining weight, she went on strict diets, and achieved amazing results - the woman weighs only 25 kilograms. She practically does not distinguish the taste of foods, and takes proteins, fats and carbohydrates strictly according to the scheme. To avoid fainting due to low blood pressure, she is forced to drink liters of strong coffee. Now the woman lives in Monaco, where, thanks to the warm climate, she is trying to improve her health. Her only income is unemployment benefits.

Despite her terrifying thinness, Valeria receives letters of support. In an interview, Valeria said: “I receive letters from girls asking me to teach them how to lose weight and be like me. All the messages are mostly from girls in their 20s who see me as an inspiration.”

Valeria began experimenting with diets as a teenager. She believes that this happened because of her mother, who was afraid that Valeria would grow up and be fat like her relatives.

At the age of 16, when Valeria weighed 63 kg, she moved with her parents to Chicago. The girl decided that if she lost weight, the kids at her new school would be more likely to like her. She completely gave up sweets and carbohydrates. But when one of her classmates made a cruel comment about her figure, she made her diet even stricter. The desire to become a model further aggravated the situation. By the age of 24, Valeria already weighed only 38 kilograms.

The irony is that now Valeria is forced to give up many foods because her body no longer accepts them. Her illness made her life very lonely. She has been single for more than 10 years, and it is very difficult to start a relationship, because, according to Valeria, she is not able to do many things that couples usually do. Valeria could not gain weight even under the supervision of specialists, whom she constantly consulted for 10 years.

Today Valeria takes supplements that help prevent bruises on her body. Also, the woman is forced to move very carefully so as not to fall. Despite all the difficulties, Valeria dreams of a child, and believes that this desire will help her gain the desired health, lost due to diet.

m.ivona.bigmir.net

Anorexic Valeria Levitina died?

Is it true that the thinnest woman in the world, suffering from anorexia, Valeria Levitina, living in Monaco, has died?

Many programs on central television have already been dedicated to Valeria Levitina, who suffered from anorexia, however, no one managed to save the girl. She died at the end of 2013.

This disease is too complex and rarely treatable.

Indeed, Valeria Litvinova from Monaco, suffering from anorexia, died at the age of forty back in 2013.

She was the thinnest woman in the world. She weighed only twenty-five kilograms.

I was plump as a child. I started going on various strict diets as a teenager. I suffered from anorexia since I was twenty. She tried to gain weight, but she couldn't.

Naturally, it didn't work. She took special photographs and posted them on the Internet so that other girls would not follow her example and become anorexic.

Mother called Valeria a walking corpse. And so it was.

By the way, Valeria was from Russia.

Probably, few people now think that anorexia is a harmless disease that is easy to cure.

But some people don’t even consider anorexia a “real” disease, and yet it has claimed more than one life.

An example of this is the fate of Valeria Levitina, who at the age of 39 weighed 25 kg. She died in December 2013, at 40.

When she was a teenager, the family moved from Russia to Monaco. The girl was pretty, but someone said something about her weight and she started losing weight.

In recent years, Valeria has often been photographed, encouraging girls by her example to give up delusional ideas about the beauty of thinness. Her case brought her only suffering and early departure.

A woman named Valeria Levitina, who suffered from anorexia for almost twenty years, died several years ago - at the very beginning of December 2013.

The woman was quite famous for her illness and many followed her life and hoped that she would be cured. But the miracle did not happen, the body was very exhausted - after all, with her height of 171 cm, her weight was only 25 kg. Naturally, the body simply stopped reacting in any way to any food.

And in her youth one cannot call her particularly fat - a beautiful young woman of average build. It's just that all the problems were in her head.

In 2013, the thinnest woman in the world died, weighing 25 kg. Valeria Levitina fell victim to her own complexes and psychological problems that became physiological. I hope this story will at least give some thought to the next freak schoolchildren who bully their overweight classmates.

Valeria Levitina's body was very exhausted due to the disease anorexia. Having suffered from it for about 20 years, almost half of her life, she was never able to cope and withstand all the trials that befell her. The girl died at such a young age.

Valeria Levitina, unfortunately, still died, her body could not stand it, it was severely exhausted. The woman was only 40 years old. She was the thinnest woman in the world and weighed around twenty-five kilograms. Valeria started having problems from her youth, from the age of twenty. It was at this time that she became addicted to strict diets, which backfired on her. After that, Valeria diligently, but unsuccessfully tried to fight weight loss, tried in every possible way to gain weight.

And it all turned out because the woman was a chubby girl and had a lot of complexes

During her illness, Valeria had to eat according to certain patterns, and she practically couldn’t even distinguish the taste of food.

www.bolshoyvopros.ru

Living mummy of Valery Levitin

39-year-old native Muscovite Valeria Levitina, now living in Monaco, shared her difficult fate with the press. As a teenager, the girl and her family moved permanently abroad, where she acquired many acquaintances and increased attention from men. As often happens, one incident, one phrase changes a person’s life forever. A rude remark about her weight caused the girl to voluntarily give up food in pursuit of beauty. The desire to lose weight developed into anorexia.

Today Valeria Levitina weighs 25 kg, she is forced to constantly eat according to a strictly defined plan. Valeria hopes that those who want to lose weight will not follow her example.

1. Valeria Levitina on the coast in Monaco. (Rosie Hallam/Barcroft Media)

2. Valeria with her mother. (Rosie Hallam/Barcroft Media)

3. Valeria is walking down the street. Passers-by avoid her like ghosts. (Rosie Hallam/Barcroft Media)

4. During an interview in your home. (Rosie Hallam/Barcroft Media)

5. Valeria is basking in the sun on her terrace. (Rosie Hallam/Barcroft Media)

6. Portrait of a woman. (Rosie Hallam/Barcroft Media)

7. Childhood photograph of Valeria Levitina. (Barcroft Media)

8. 27-year-old Valeria in exile. (Barcroft Media)

9. A girl in her youth. (Barcroft Media)

10. Shortly before deciding to lose weight. (Barcroft Media)

The life and death of the thinnest woman on the planet

1/6  Valeria Levitina has long been called “the thinnest woman on the planet.” Her weight was only 25 kg with a height of 171 cm. The body did not accept heavy food at all and could only cope with a tiny portion of food. It wasn’t always this bad, but the girl was taught to control her weight from a young age. “Thank you” to my mother - she wanted an ideal daughter.

2/6  At the age of 16, the Levitina family moved to the USA. Valeria then weighed 64 kg and was already planning to lose weight in order to gain the approval of her peers and mother.

3/6  One day at school they told her that her butt was so fat that they could close the football goal on it. These words sank deeply into Levitina’s soul. Many years later, she bitterly recalled how a thoughtless phrase can completely turn a person’s life around forever.

4/6  Valeria really managed to lose weight. She even decided to become a model. At first everything went well, but then the girl’s weight began to rapidly fall. By the age of 24, she already weighed only 38 kg.

5/6  When the situation became critical, the girl turned to the doctors. The prognosis was bad: the body refused to take food. And even a simple walk threatened the girl with disaster - her fragile body might not survive even the slightest fall or collision with the person opposite. She could literally crumble at any moment.

6/6  Valeria with all her heart dreamed of gaining weight and starting a normal life: starting a family, having a child. She began to promote the idea of ​​love and respect for her body, but she herself fell in this struggle. Her body was still too weak. Valeria Levitina died on December 1, 2013.

woman.rambler.ru

Lera Levitina has a bad body

"MK" met with a Muscovite - one of the skinniest women on earth

In an attempt to be beautiful and desirable, you can overdo it. At least, 39-year-old former Muscovite Valeria Levitina is now sure of this. Today she is one of the thinnest women on the planet. Lera does not consider her weight of 25 kilograms with a height of 171 cm to be dangerous, although she admits that she is sick and needs treatment, as well as help and support. She can hardly lift her bag and get out of the car on her own. And we, healthy people, have difficulty holding back tears while looking at Lera’s literally translucent figure. How did it happen that a woman went on a hunger strike on herself?

“I’m actually a native Muscovite,” Valeria says proudly. - I grew up very smart. While not yet in school, she wrote poetry, played the piano, and developed beyond her years. I will say without false modesty: she was smart, beautiful, the favorite of the whole class. But at the age of 16, my mother and stepfather took me to the USA. I loved and still love Moscow very much. And there, across the ocean, absolute uncertainty awaited me. Maybe it was this move that broke me.

Did her mother know then, in the distant 80s of the last century, that her desire to have a beautiful, slender and successful girl would result in these 25 kilograms?

“No one in our family has ever been a slender gazelle,” says Valeria. “However, I always believed that I should become one.” My family also supported my desire to be slim.

Indeed, what is it if a young girl wants to have a good figure?

Lera shows her old photos and videos. They show a young, slender, smiling beauty. Well, just a Hollywood star! I wonder: could she really not like herself like that?

She liked her, of course, and all the men liked her. Marriage proposals rained down on me from all sides. Now I understand that at that time I was already suffering from anorexia. After all, many people mistakenly believe that a person is sick when he looks like I do now. But in fact, this is already too neglected an option. Treatment should begin when a person appears healthy and slim, but, as many people think, is simply addicted to diets. Believe me, this is not just a hobby. This is a real fixation. When the brain has already begun to work against the body. I know from myself: losing weight simply becomes the meaning of life. I was of little interest in what was happening around me, the main thing was what I ate today and what I would allow myself tomorrow. If I knew then what I know now,” Valeria sighs, “I would never have reached such a state.

- Why was it difficult for you to settle on a certain weight?

At that time I didn’t understand at all that I was going somewhere wrong. How could I stop? And how much can we even talk about my weight? Everyone just asks how much I weighed last year, how much this year, what I eat, what I don’t eat.

Valeria is really fed up with these questions. But here’s what’s surprising: according to her, the starting point for the onset of her illness was an accidentally dropped phrase from a teenage friend.

In the emigrant environment, you come across different people. Both smart and not so smart. I remember we went on a picnic with friends. The guys started playing football, and one, from the losing team, joked: “In order not to miss the balls, we need to make Leroux the goalkeeper.” My bottom, they say, is wider than the gate. After that I took charge of myself. And I began to monitor very carefully what I eat day after day.

At first it was just innocent diets - like not eating after six and the like. Then Lera completely gave up sweets and starchy foods. Then I eliminated all carbohydrates from my food. And she went further and further. Naturally, my figure began to change - at first for the better. From a chubby teenager she turned into a slender and beautiful young girl, then into a thin girl, then into a very thin one.

In those distant years, the relatives of the young and beautiful Valeria did not even think about any anorexia. They were happy for the girl, who was becoming slimmer and prettier day by day. Moreover, Lera began to participate in beauty contests and in 1994 even won the title “Miss Chicago”.

However, Levitina absolutely does not look like a slow-witted model who can only walk on the catwalk. From the very first minutes of communication, I realized that she was a very smart, spiritually developed, educated, well-read person.

Yes,” she laughs at my remark. - Many media present me as a model dreaming of a dizzying career. But I never aspired to anything like that.

However, communicating with her was not easy. She either tried to end the dialogue, then when I was about to leave, she stopped and started talking again. An educated, well-read, flexible girl, due to illness, turned into a capricious, nervous, sickly woman. And, of course, talking about food causes her particular irritation. And the type of food itself. At the restaurant where we met, she spent a very long time asking the waiter whether sugar had accidentally gotten into her tea.

Lera and I were sitting in a small cozy restaurant in the very center of Moscow. From the entire menu, she chose cranberry tea with cinnamon.

“Girl,” she turns to the waitress. - Just please don’t add any sugar or any syrup to the tea. Just cranberries and cinnamon. OK?

When the desired drink was brought, Lera studied it carefully and, taking a sip, returned it back:

No, there is still sugar in there! I feel. Change it.

With widened eyes, the waitress goes back to the kitchen.

- What, you can’t have sugar?- I’m surprised.

Oh, leave me alone with this - what is possible and what is not.

But then, softening, he adds:

I just haven’t eaten anything sweet for so many years that my body simply doesn’t accept sugar anymore.

- But still, what are you eating?

I am very selective when it comes to nutrition. I try to eat a lot of vegetables; for protein I prefer rabbit. My refrigerator is small, so I go to the store every day and take a little bit, but everything is fresh. And I can’t eat in large doses - I’ll just feel bad, very bad. Not only does food not bring pleasure, it also brings pain.

- So you can’t get better?

Everyone pesters me with this question - as if this is what is important.

Of course it is! Do you really like the way you look now? After all, for the sake of beauty, you were able to lose weight, which means you can gain weight.

I can get better. But you all don't understand that the problem is not weight. Weight is just a symptom of illness. I gained weight a hundred times, but then lost the weight again. Swiftly. The whole problem is in the head, something is not working right there. And I don’t know where this “wrong way” is treated. There are very few specialists in the world who can help people like me.

I noticed that you like to wear tight clothes. Are you doing this on purpose? Do you like it when people pay attention to you?

Not at all. It's just more convenient. And then, in this way I contribute to the fight against anorexia. Let everyone see what the pursuit of slimness can lead to. Naturally, my sizes are not available in the store. I have to change everything.

- Tell me, how is your personal life?

No way. All the suitors who once vied with each other to offer me their hand and heart have fled. I don’t have any close girlfriends or friends. Everyone runs away from problems. That's how I was left alone.

- And the family? Does your mom like the way you live and the way you look?

Of course not! What are you saying? What kind of mother would like this! She, seeing me, cries crocodile tears. And this only makes me feel worse.

- Do you meet her often?

Not good. Three years ago I moved to live in Monaco. It’s expensive for her to fly to me from the USA, and for me to fly to her. In addition, she has a husband - my stepfather. He is already at an advanced age and is now more of a burden than a help. We see each other sometimes, somewhere on neutral territory.

- How did you go to live in Monaco?

I entered the local university for a master's degree. Last year I defended my Ph.D. minimum. I am currently writing my doctoral dissertation in economics. I hope to get my degree soon. I live modestly, renting a tiny apartment. And since I can’t work for anyone, things aren’t very good with money. But I like the Cote d'Azur! There's so much sun there! And the French are much more delicate than the Americans, no one pays much attention to me. In America this was simply a problem.

-Are you planning to settle there?

Honestly, my dream is to return home to Moscow. When I came here last year, after 23 years, I immediately realized that I had to come back. I feel good here, and I am sure that it is in Russia, among the Russian people, that I will be able to recover. But I don’t have any home here. When we left, we left everything to the state. I don’t even have a Russian passport. I wrote a letter about this to Putin, asking him to help me restore my citizenship, because I was taken away without asking. But there is no answer...

But in Russia, Lera already has a huge number of pen pals. After Levitina’s participation in a famous Russian talk show, she began to receive a huge number of letters.

Some people ask for advice on how to lose weight to a weight like mine. Some simply express their condolences. With one woman, Maria, I actually began a very interesting and friendly correspondence. We communicate with her not at all about weight and diets. And so, just about life, about love, about fate. She is very supportive of me, and I would like to believe her. Well, this is mostly what young girls write. I try to talk to everyone, write, explain that they shouldn’t follow my path. And I won’t teach them the secrets of losing weight, because that’s the same as teaching them how to die. I would like to help those who are already sick, because I understand them like no one else. And to the parents of these children who don’t know where to run and what to do.

- Maybe you should help yourself first by getting better?

Yes, this is my dream, which I am sure will come true. But I don’t know how yet. I have a psychological education, and if I were cured, I think I could professionally treat anorexia. Here in Russia.

You told me that you know something now that you didn't know before. That's why I brought myself to this point. Say it so all the young girls can hear you and maybe stop.

I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be able to lift my bag on my own, that people would shy away from me on the streets and on buses. That I won't be put on a plane. But the most important thing is that I didn’t think that many once close people would turn their backs on me. Where are all these suitors, friends, acquaintances? Everyone ran away. It turns out that no one needs a person with problems. And I would really like to meet the one, the only one who would believe in me and love me for who I am. Together with him we would go back this way. And, of course, I really want to have a child - even with the help of a surrogate mother. That's when I'll be cured.

The most famous anorexic in the world, Isabelle Carreau from France, died in December 2010, weighing 27 kilograms (with a height of 172). The girl, who once worked as a fashion model, devoted the last years of her life to the fight against anorexia. And she even wrote a book.

Victoria Beckham - former lead singer of the Spice Girls, mother of four children and wife of the most famous football player on the planet - is called by many an icon of anorexia. After each pregnancy, Victoria (height 165, weight 45 kg) becomes thinner, but continues to be dissatisfied with her shape.

Short, thin, angular Kate Moss (height 169, weight 48 kg) became a revelation to the fashion world, tired of curvy beauties. Her thinness (or as it is also called “heroin chic”) is the calling card of the fashion model.

39-year-old Valeria Levitina is 171 centimeters tall and weighs only 25 kilograms. Journalists say that Valeria, the thinnest woman in the world, looks like a mummy, and they are not far from the truth. After all, it is difficult to find a more accurate comparison for a skeleton covered with skin. Doctors immediately make a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, meaning a serious disease that is difficult and sometimes impossible to cure.

How did the thinnest woman in the world come to such a disastrous outcome? Trying to use her example to warn girls who want to get rid of what they think are extra pounds, Valeria Levitina willingly reveals her life story.

As a child, Valeria did not stand out in any way among her Moscow peers, she was a plump girl and experienced some dissatisfaction from this. In 1989, her mother and stepfather decided to emigrate to America, where Valeria grew from a girl into a rather slender and attractive young lady. She took part in beauty contests, in which she had to lose weight to perform successfully.

The girl aspired to become a famous model, but her desire to lose weight brought fame, but in absolutely the wrong quality. A passionate desire to lose weight made her famous in the category “The thinnest woman in the world,” bringing Valeria huge troubles in the form of quite serious health problems, the inability to conceive a child, and lead the lifestyle of a full-fledged healthy person.

The development of the disease, according to Valeria, was caused by critical remarks from friends about her appearance, articles from glossy publications calling for her to meet the model standard, and a mother who wanted to see her daughter as the embodiment of her ideas of perfection. She began to lose weight with harmless diets, followed the rules of healthy eating, and gradually gave up a number of foods. The weight loss that had begun was so pleasing that the point at which weight loss turned into a disease went unnoticed. It's not just about her disfigured appearance, the thinnest woman in the world is seriously ill. Valeria “lost weight” to the critical stage when, as a result of degenerative changes in the internal organs, an irreversible depression of their functions began, which could lead to the most tragic outcome.

Now the thinnest woman in the world lives on one social benefit in Monaco, since the climate of the principality suits her to maintain a relatively tolerable state of health. Valeria Levitina is lonely. She is forced to eat according to a strictly defined plan, since eating food causes painful sensations due to disruption of the digestive system.

Valeria Levitina, who has realized her problem, is open to communication. She comes to talk shows to clearly demonstrate with her example to girls who dream of losing weight the danger of striving to meet the standards imposed in the fashion industry. Very thin girls, whose photos make one want to immediately feel sorry for and feed the lightweight creature, are the idols of a certain category of teenage girls and young women. There are even communities of people who dream of becoming anorexic. It is with them, beginners who have not yet become dependent on the disease, that Valery Levitin shares his bitter experience, wanting to warn against thoughtless experiments that are dangerous not only to health, but also to life.

A living corpse—that’s what Valeria Levitina’s mother calls her. At 39 years old, the girl with the appearance of a mummy weighs only 25 kilograms. This is the result of a voluntary hunger strike that Valeria once went on in pursuit of beauty and male attention. Now Valeria has difficulty distinguishing the taste of foods. Every bite of what you eat is an unbearable pain. To avoid falling dead due to record low blood pressure, Valeria drinks liters of strong coffee. A daily trip to the store is like a visit to a nutritionist. Proteins, fats, carbohydrates - everything is strictly according to the scheme. Otherwise there will be dire consequences. Valeria lives in Monaco. In a country where the sun shines 350 days a year, her weakened body is trying to regain lost health, but so far unsuccessfully. I only have enough physical strength to study :), my only income is unemployment benefits. For the first time in 23 years after leaving with her parents for America, Valeria returned to Moscow. She wants to stay in her homeland - she assures that she feels better in Russia. Valeria Levitina came to the studio of the “Tonight” program to talk about her problems and warn young girls against a similar path. This is how Valeria was as a child And this one 19 years ago Documentary film about Valeria