Awareness Successes

Well guys, we're reaching the end of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (last chance to wear purple for Eating Disorders. Well, I guess officially. I mean, you can wear purple for EDs any time you want I suppose. Do It! Wear purple in November!) Some cool things that I've done this week include Project Post-It( putting post it notes with positive affirmations, positive body thoughts, and inspiring quotes on the scale at the gym and mirrors in the womens' bathrooms around campus). This is something that women around the country were doing on Monday to tell people, hey, the number on the scale does not define how valuable you are. There's so much more to beauty than what you see in the mirror =) I thought it was a cool project; a project that 176 individuals across the country participated in and a project I was proud to be a part of. Thanks to Molly Aviva for the idea and organization.

I also got the chance (and guts) to tell a new friend about my eating disorder last night. He was very receptive and curious and asked questions. By the end of the conversation he said "wow, I had it totally wrong. It's not JUST about being skinny!" Mission accomplished =)

So as we end ED Awareness Week, we move straight into Endometriosis Awareness Month (wear yellow!) Wow! How the year is flying. This month of March is a particularly special one this year because literally thousands of women have come together for the Million Women March for Endometriosis. Checkout the website at www.millionwomenmarch2014.org if you want to get involved. There is still time!

All throughout the year, women have been doing art projects, writing, making videos, and telling their stories. All this is culminating into the endomarch which is in Washington DC on March 13 (attend if you can! If you can't, there are ways to attend virtually). The goals of the march are to raise awareness, unite women, educate the public AND health care professionals, push for a cure, improve health screenings, and possibly affect some legislation in congress.

I was given a super cool opportunity to do an interview about my experiences with Endo, in particular it's effect on mental health. The paperwork is still pending, but it will soon be online and used for promotional purposes as well as being shown at the convention in DC. I went back and forth on whether or not to do this interview for a long time, but I finally decided to practice what I preach and walk the walk. I mean, someone has to say these things.

Having my face and name publicly with my story online was a little nerve wracking (slightly different than writing an anonymous blog!) but in the end, I was very pleased with the finished project and proud of my contribution to the march. I'll post a link to the interview as soon as it's posted.

So yeah. Keep fighting people. Raise awareness! We're doing great things here to effect a lot of change this year!