Episode #19 - Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2023: A chat about lived experience, accessing support and recovery with writer and blogger Chloë Grande

It’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) 2023!

On this episode, BANA Health Educator, Stephani Fenkanyn chats with Canadian mental health blogger, writer and speaker Chloë Grande.

Chloë Grande (she/her) is a communications specialist turned eating disorder recovery writer, speaker, and blogger. After an anorexia relapse at the start of the pandemic, she began blogging about her eating disorder recovery to help create a sense of community for other eating disorder survivors. The blog has since grown into a full-time business where she works alongside leading mental health organizations and facilitates body image workshops at universities and colleges across Ontario. Learn more about her work online: www.chloegrande.com. Follow along at: @ChloSheGrows on Instagram and Twitter.

In this podcast, Stephani and Chloë discuss this year’s EDAW theme, Transforming Asks to Action. Chloe shares about her own passed lived experience living with an eating disorder, as well as being a young athlete and being in sport culture. We get into contributing factors that Chloe can now look back on and understands how they may have impacted the development of her eating disorder. She discusses her passion for working with post-secondary institutions and the importance of bringing more services to this population. Chloë shares about accessing support and what treatment looked like for her. We discuss healthy coping mechanisms and how it is normal to have bad body image days. We also touch on future plans for Chloë’s business and what keeps her inspired to continue to do this work.