Black Eating Disorder Recovery and Anti-Diet Content Creators You Should Know: Part Two
If I were to ask you to conjure up an image of someone with an eating disorder, what would come to mind?
For many of us, it’s an image of an emaciated, middle-class-or-higher white girl. Eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, have long been viewed as a “skinny white girl” problem, at least predominantly. Just look at some of the most popular representations of people with eating disorders in recent years—the movies Starving in Suburbia (2014), To the Bone (2017), and Feed (2017), to name a few—and you’ll notice an interesting trend: almost every protagonist is white, middle-class, female, and below the age of 25.
The reality is eating disorders don’t discriminate; people of all ages, genders, races, sexual orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds, and sizes can have an eating disorder, and there’s no way to determine if someone has one just by looking at them.
The skinny-white-girl stereotype of people with eating disorders has critical ramifications for those of us who don’t fit its narrow mold. Eating disorders among Black people, for instance, often go missing until they become severe. In fact, clinicians are less likely to recognize eating disorders in Black people than in any other race (Gordon et al., 2006).
This Black History Month, we are following up with a part two to our 2022 post and spotlighting a new line-up of Black eating disorder recovery and anti-diet content creators to follow in 2024.
Sonya Renee Taylor | she/her
Sonya Renee Taylor is a New York Times best-selling author, racial justice and body liberation activist, and award-winning artist. She founded The Body is Not an Apology, a digital media company, community, and movement that centers radical self-love as a path toward liberation from oppressive systems and body shame.
Safiya McHill | she/they
Safiya McHill is a therapist, coach, and writer. In her therapy work, she helps clients heal from eating disorders and poor body image from a Health at Every Size (HAES) lens, looking at the roles of racism, fatphobia, ableism, and transphobia in the development of their disordered eating and body shame.
Chrissy King | she/her
Chrissy King is an author, speaker, and powerlifter who wrote the 2023 book The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom. She advocates for a body positivity that is not simply about loving one’s own body but bringing about justice for all bodies, especially those most marginalized.
Nana Crawford | she/her
Nana Crawford is a samba dancer and twerk teacher who fosters body positive dance spaces, promoting body confidence and joyful movement at all sizes. She offers virtual and in-person, London-based dance classes for people of all sizes, abilities, and dance experience levels.
Ilya Parker | he/they
Ilya Parker is an affirming movement practitioner and the founder of Decolonizing Fitness, a digital educational resource and community for people interested in deprogramming from toxic fitness culture. He specifically centers marginalized people who have historically been excluded from conventional fitness spaces, including BIPOC, fat people, disabled and/or chronically ill people, queer and trans people, and more.
Brianna Theus | she/her
Brianna Theus is a registered dietician who provides nutrition counseling to people with disordered eating, eating disorders, and other medical diagnoses; as well as folks seeking wellness in general. She specifically centers BIPOC in her work, helping them make peace with food and their bodies.
While each of these Black thought leaders are differently and uniquely connected to eating disorder recovery, anti-dieting, and body positivity, all of them share a wholehearted commitment to bringing about liberation for all bodies, especially marginalized ones. We encourage you to check out their Instagram pages and read more about them and their work by visiting their websites.
Begin Eating Disorder and Body Image Therapy in California
Kindful Body can help you positively transform the way you think and feel about your body and food. At Kindful Body, we utilize the most cutting-edge, evidence-based approaches, including Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR, and Somatic-based modalities. You can begin therapy with us by following these steps:
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with our client care coordinator.
Connect with a caring, experienced eating disorder therapist.
Start improving the relationship between you and your body!
Other Services Offered by Kindful Body
Our team is happy to offer a variety of services in support of your mental health. This is why our team is happy to offer counseling services focused on self-esteem issues, trauma and PTSD, emotional eating recovery, nutrition counseling, binge eating disorder, and body image. You can start receiving support from Sacramento, San Jose, Oakland/Berkeley, Walnut Creek, San Mateo, Orange County, or anywhere in California. Learn more about us by checking out our blog and FAQs page.