Honor National Eating Disorders Awareness Week with Project BodyTalk

The last week of February is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, a week-long way to raise awareness of eating disorders, the devastation they cause, and hope for the future.

This year's theme is "It's Time to Talk About It," a notion I love because I'm all about talking about it, whatever "it" may be. Secrecy perpetuates bad feelings--let's get all the "its" out in the open. So I'm excited to be partnering with the National Eating Disorders Association to use that week to raise awareness and get people thinking in new ways--not just about eating disorders but about all of the crazy, disordered attitudes toward food and our bodies we hold in this country. This year I'm doing my part through Project BodyTalk, a web-based audio project I started two years ago to give people a place to talk about their relationships with food, eating, and their bodies.


If you're anywhere near the Syracuse, New York, area the last week of February, you can come to one of our open recording sessions. We'll put you in a private studio and let you record a commentary. You can choose to be anonymous, use a first name, or use your whole name. You can talk about something you love about your body, something you've struggled with, something you want other people to know about eating disorders--it's up to you. I'll be posting details on the sessions soon, but I expect they'll be held on campus at the Newhouse School, 3-8 p.m. every day that week. (Contact me for more info as the time gets closer.)

If, like most people, you don't live anywhere near Syracuse, or you can't make it to one of our sessions, you can still do your part by recording a commentary and sending it my way. Listen to some of the incredibly powerful and moving commentaries on the site for inspiration, and then make your own MP3 or MP4 file, or use a CD, and send it in through this handy web submission form. You can also hear an NPR program on Project BodyTalk here.

I hope you'll join me and Project BodyTalk this week for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Because you know what? It's really freaking time to talk about it.

Project BodyTalk on 51% this Thursday

I'm delighted that the talented Susan Barnett, host of the nationally syndicated NPR show 51%, will be airing a segment this Thursday, January 6, on Project BodyTalk. This audio and web-based project collects commentaries (a la StoryCorps) on issues relating to food, eating, and bodies. This show includes a lively conversation between Barnett and myself, as well as clips from several audio commentaries made last year by faculty and students at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. You can hear the full commentaries on the Project BodyTalk website.

Here's a list of NPR stations that carry the show. I hope you'll tune in, and then visit the website to listen to more commentaries and upload your own.

Thanks to my amazing grad student from last year, Megan Swann, who took the photo above and created the website.

Project BodyTalk goes live!

After nearly a year of development and work, I'm pleased to announce that thanks to my fabulous graduate assistant, Megan Swann, we've got a website up and running for Project BodyTalk. I've been writing about eating disorders for a while now, and at some point I began thinking that it would be really fabulous to be able to hear the actual voices of people who struggle with EDs. I'm also a radio devotee and big fan of shows like This American Life and the StoryCorps project.

From these sources, Project BodyTalk was born. It's an audio project that collects commentaries on the subjects of food, eating, body image, and eating disorders. Here on the Syracuse University campus, we opened a recording booth for a couple weeks last fall and collected a number of commentaries from students, faculty, and community members who came up to campus to record. Since then I've had people send me mp4 and mp3 files. A couple of teachers at a high school in Baldwinsville had students record commentaries.

The first commentators were told to record a commentary anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes, on any related subject. Some people told stories about friends and family members struggling with body-related issues. Some talked about foods they love. Some talked about what it's like to be fat, or thin, to have anorexia or binge eating disorder, to feel pressured to look a certain way. It's turning into a wonderfully eclectic, diverse, and moving project.

So . . . the website is up and running with the first half dozen commentaries. Over the next few months I'll be editing and uploading more commentaries, and, I hope, collecting them too.

We've also got a page labeled ACT, where I'm posting links and descriptions of other body-positive projects. If you've got one to share, send me info, and I'll happily add yours to the page.

I'd love your feedback--and your commentaries.

*Image by Megan Swann.

BODYTALK: The video

Sara Sultanik, a talented grad student here at Newhouse, put together this cool video about the BODYTALK project. Thanks, Sara!

Everyone else--what are you waiting for? I'd love to get an MP3 from you for the BODYTALK project.

Project BODYTALK: Anyone can record a commentary

I was interviewed this morning for the SU campus newspaper about Project BODYTALK. The reporter asked me an interesting question: Do I think that the act of telling your story around food and body image is healing? Is that what I hope to accomplish through this project--healing for the people who tell their stories?

My answer: Absolutely. But I also know that healing--in whatever form--will also happen through listening to these powerful stories.

To that end, I'd like to collect as many commentaries as possible. You don't have to have an eating disorder or serious body image issue to tell your story--in fact, I'd like to hear from people who feel good about their bodies, too!

Project BODYTALK starts today on the Syracuse University campus--but you don't have to come to campus to participate. Record your commentary in the privacy of your own living room and send it to me as an MP3 file. Please say your name and age at the start of the recording; if you want to remain anonymous, say that on the file too, and I'll edit it out.

If you want to submit a file, send it to hnbrown at syr dot edu.

If you're in or near Syracuse, come on down to the BODYTALK audiobooth any day this week or next between 3 and 8 p.m.: Newhouse 2, Room 472, studio P.

I hope to hear your story.