It is lunch hour and people are hurriedly making their way through the UCC’s crowded atrium.
One student stops to smile and point out something a little out of the ordinary to a friend. There’s a mirror showing her reflection with the words “I am beautiful” painted across it.
The mirror is just one part of an effort to promote a positive body image for Eating Disorder Awareness Week—an event Rotaract was celebrating in conjunction with the USC earlier this month.
“We’re trying to help people love their bodies,” says Jessica Bhullar, one of the coordinators.
Passersby have been reading positive phrases like “I will listen to my needs” and “My reflection does not determine my self worth” on mirrors set up at the eating disorders awareness booth in the UCC. Bhullar says it’s a part of an effort to make this year’s campaign interactive, not just informative.
“Even if people don’t stop when they walk by, it might just brighten their week,” she says.
Those who did stop by had the chance to participate in activities designed to get them thinking about body image.
One exercise consisted of looking in the mirror and drawing their silhouettes.
“A lot of people draw bigger,” says Bhullar. “You don’t realize how hard people are on themselves. When you’re getting dressed in the morning it’s just not something you’re aware of.”
Another activity involved rewriting beauty in a magazine. Students wrote down one thing they like most about themselves—like their smile or determination—and stuck the piece of paper on top of an existing magazine ad.
“The idea is to create a magazine that represents Western’s true beauty,” says Bhullar. “We want to know what Western’s definition of beauty is, not what Flare’s is or Cosmo’s is.”
The notion of beauty found in the media was just one of the topics volunteers wanted to raise. Their booth provided statistics like 42 per cent of girls in grades one to three want to be thinner and 15 per cent of people affected by eating disorders are males.
Hope’s Garden, a London-based eating disorder support and resource centre, helped Western get the dialogue about eating disorders going with a breakfast and panel discussion. The centre’s executive director, Karen McGregor, says we can change body image by changing the way we think and talk about our bodies.
“If someone says they’re feeling fat, well fat isn’t an emotion. So trying to challenge that dialogue. Try to get to the root of the issue and not the surface stuff,” she says.
McGregor says eating disorders are often something people don’t want to talk about.
“It’s an illness like any other and people deserve to talk about it and get help,” she says.
Hope’s Garden offers help by lending an ear to anyone who wants to talk, said McGregor.
“On one end of the continuum you have some behaviours like low self esteem and at the other end you have the diagnosis of an eating disorder. We’re here for people wherever they find themselves between those two extremes.”
In addition to offering a listening ear, the centre also offers a referral directory for treatment options, support programs and a library full of resources.
For Western’s awareness week coordinator Alyssa Hasham, this event was about letting students know other students care.
“We’re here to offer support to anyone who needs it,” she says.
Hasham said one of the best experiences of the week was when a student suffering from an eating disorder approached the booth to express appreciation.
“They said it’s a very alone feeling so it helps to know that people care about it.”
For those affected, Rotaract volunteers had a long list of good resources.
“We’re just trying to help people better understand it so they can deal with it,” says Hasham. “Whether we touch one person or 10, it will be worth it.”
The writer is a graduate student studying journalism.