Our STORY
When I started high school in 2018, I developed two eating disorders: binge eating disorder and orthorexia. In the fall of 2019, I tried recovery. It was unsuccessful, but it was during that time that I felt inspired to create a body-positive club at my high school. I encouraged self-love, spoke out against diet culture, and promoted widespread body acceptance, but ultimately, I couldn’t absorb those messages on a personal level.
I started my successful recovery in March 2020. That May, I decided that I wanted to expand my body-positive advocacy somehow, and the first thing I thought to do was expand the club I started at my high school. I put it on the back-burner for some time, focusing primarily on advocacy through my social media platforms until I felt prepared to develop a global alliance.
Soon, I set to work creating a website, logo, and resources for others to start a Body Positive Alliance club at their high schools and universities. What was formerly a local passion project quickly developed into a national entity advocating for inclusivity, eating disorder recovery, and positive body image.
In February 2020, I realized that although my intentions were pure, my definition of “body positivity” wasn’t true to the radical, political origins of the body-positive movement. I began to understand that my poor body image was not simply a fleeting moment of adolescent insecurity, but instead a longstanding byproduct of fatphobia, ableism, racism, and sexism. After further educating myself, I understood that the organization’s advocacy needed to focus on radical societal change, centering marginalized voices.
Presently, we advocate for the causes of body liberation, preaching the acceptance, equity, and representation of all bodies regardless of physical ability, size, gender, race, or appearance. Forms of bias and prejudice that impact our ability to achieve this can be structural, systemic, interpersonal, and internalized.
As an organization, we’re open, compassionate, and ultimately, a safe space to learn. Our job is to offer knowledge to individuals so that they learn and grow. As they do this, we're working to make structural change happen. The body-positive movement deserves recognition across all cultures, countries, and communities. We all deserve to feel confident — comfortable, at a minimum — in our bodies.