The Forum sits down with LETS President Maddy Olson to talk about her work for National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

The Forum sits down with LETS President Maddy Olson to talk about her work for National Eating Disorder Awareness Week
What inspired you and your club to start this campaign?
At WHS there is a “Stepford Wives”-esque appearance to the student body. Rarely do people come to school not looking like they stepped out of catalog, which puts a lot of pressure on students to look a certain way. Wilton is also a huge sports town and there is a misconception that the ideal athlete is this huge, muscly man, which leads to body image issues within teen boys. The issue among boys is especially important because traditional ideas of masculinity usually make them more resistant to the idea of getting help if they actually an develop a disorder. Ever since middle school, I’ve seen so many perfectly healthy girls complaining about their bodies because they don’t look like that model or singer, even if they know about the heavy use of photo-shop. The main goal of this week was for us to show the school that eating disorders are not something to discriminate. Something that begins with simply being dissatisfied with your body can have serious consequences.What has been the response from the WHS community?

We have gotten great feedback from the community! I think girls are really feeling the pressure to look a certain way and are appreciating having the issue out in the open. We have gotten almost a hundred ‘likes’ on Instagram and Facebook with our mirror campaign which is so exciting.

LETS end National Eating Disorder Awareness week with a bang! You can find the posters in the girls bathrooms on the second and third floor and the science building!.