In an effort to promote body positivity around campus, Embody Carolina hosted its first Diversity and Inclusion Panel on Eating Disorders and Body Image Tuesday.
The organization planned the event to have panelists representing a variety of identities including: people of color, men, LGBTQIA+, Jewish individuals and those struggling or recovering from binge eating disorders.
Embody Carolina is an organization providing students with helpful strategies to serve as effective allies to those struggling with eating disorders. This is the first organization of its kind on any college campus across the nation, the Embody Carolina website says.
Megan Neff, event coordinator for Embody Carolina, wanted Tuesday’s event to focus on promoting the inclusivity of the organization, as well as its commitment to all identities within the UNC community.
“We have had some people tell us they didn’t think we were diverse enough,” Neff said. "We wanted to make sure that everyone at UNC kind of understood that eating disorders are not just a white girl problem.”
With this inclusivity panel, Neff hopes students can better recognize that eating disorders can, and do, affect more than just one group of individuals.
“It’s not just rich, white, female women,” Neff said. “They can affect anybody of any religion, race, sexuality, socioeconomic status.”
Katie Regittko, social media coordinator for Embody Carolina, served as one of the panelists during Tuesday’s event.
“What we’re trying to do is trying to uplift more less-spoken voices in the eating disorder recovery community and also body image in general,” Regittko said. “In a lot of marginalized groups, eating disorders are actually more prevalent, but it’s not talked about a lot because the people that receive treatment are usually thin, young, white girls.”
