You know those nearly nude photos with a conveniently-placed heart? Yeah, that’s Reflections doing their PR magic. Eating Disorder Awareness Week is Reflections’ main spring event, but the group does way more beyond the pictures – that’s where Reflections’ Outreach Chair Elysa Neumann comes in! Read on to find out about how she’s making a difference and loving her body.
Hometown: Chatham, MA
Major/minor: International and Area Studies, minor in Political Science
On-campus involvement: Reflections, Alpha Phi, Gamma Chi for 2015 recruitment
What exactly is Reflections and what is your role? Reflections is an eating disorder awareness and positive body image group on campus. I’m the Outreach Chair, and I mainly focus on St. Louis outreach, specifically for Girls Inc.
What is Girls Inc., and how does Reflections work with them? Girls, Inc. is an in inner city after-school program for girls ages 3-17. I started working with Girls, Inc. when I was in high school. [Reflections] goes in and educates the girls about positive body image issues, eating disorders, and the like. We work with their older girls program, so we’re normally working with girls that are 13-18. We do a mix of activities and programming, and teach them about the basics of eating disorders and how to help their friends, because a lot of these girls are older than their age, so they’re having to deal with it as early as middle school. We basically teach them what it is and how to intervene with friends. We also try to foster confidence in themselves and ideas of what alternate types of beauty are.
Next Week is Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Eating Disorder Awareness Week is Reflections’ “big thing” on campus during the spring to bring awareness about eating disorders and disordered eating. This year we produced a magazine, which we’re really excited about, and that’s going to be released the entire week. It has really cool, different body articles about playlists of body-positive music and stuff like that, and also a lot of our photos from the photo shoot. So those are going to be around and we’re really excited for that. And then there’s going to be a bunch of different events we’re doing with Active Minds as well.
What do you hope the Wash U student body gets out of EDAW? I think one really important thing is getting the idea out there that there are so many people that are affected by eating disorders, disordered eating, body dysmorphia and problems with body image. I think becoming aware of that and realizing that it is a prevalent problem on our campus is important. Also, for the people that are struggling, we want them to realize that there’s a support system for them.
Most importantly, why do you love your body? I love my body because it lets me do so many incredible things. I used to have a weird relationship with my body and then I realized how awesome it was and now I take care of my body and do silly stuff like Tough Mudder and just enjoy life because your body lets you do all of those things!
For more information about Eating Disorder Awareness Week, go online to facebook.com/reflectionswustl.