I have a family history full of mental illness. My moms side of the family struggles with extreme anxiety and depression while my dads side struggles with depression as well. I now struggle with depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder. I am very lucky to have resources available to me to help me through challenging times. However, not everyone is that lucky. That is why I think there should be more awareness for mental health. Small changes can be the biggest difference in someone’s life. Because I know what it feels like I would love to be able to help others overcome these obstacles. I would love to help bring awareness to eating disorders as they really hit home for me and diet vulture these days is unbelievable. Diet culture is full of lies and dangerous methods of weight loss. I am considering studying to be a registered dietitian in order to help those with disorder eating. I wouldn’t have known how much damage I was doing to my body without a dietitian because whoever I asked I was always told to eat twelve hundred calories a day and I will lose weight. Little did I know I was ruining my metabolism and taking dieting to major extremes. I would love to bring awareness to these struggles and possibly save someone’s life. If we all stand together to bring awareness to mental health we could change lives for the better.

Currently, I am a junior in high school. I also work at a local bar as a waitress. And during the summer I work another job that I love. I love the people, the job, and everything about it. I am saving up for college, so I can hopefully graduate debt-free. I have always been fascinated by dentists. While all the other kids hated going I was excited to see if I brushed good. I was pretty lucky to have such a great dentist too. He always made it fun to go. He laughed made jokes and was inviting. He also took out my wisdom teeth before they rooted so that I was in practically no pain at all. And he showed me what my teeth looked like whole, which is not something people usually get to see. In fact I kept them and did my science fair a project with them, to see what stains teeth best. I got out pretty lucky I have straight teeth and never had braces. But I did always want braces, I wanted to see what they felt like and how they put them on. My sister had them and she told me how much they hurt at times, but I was still curious. One of the reasons I want to be a dentist or Orthodontist is because I love when people are proud to show their smile. I think everyone looks better when you smile with your teeth. When you do you look truly happy. And no one should be scared or ashamed of their smile. I want to bring confidence to those who are scared to show their true smile. I know it will take lots of hard work and lots of dedication, but it is truly something I am passionate about.

I can't say that I have had a lot of struggles in my life, however, there are a few that have been defining moments for me. By the time I was in eighth grade I was obese. I was mindless about my eating, was sneaking food around people because I was embarrassed they would judge me for how much I ate. And finding clothes to fit an eighth-grader that big was another struggle. But the summer before my freshman year I decided to lose all the weight. I didn't think it would be that hard and I was very wrong. Two years later and I am still working on myself. In just that summer I had already lost twenty pounds or so. I didn't see much of a difference but was getting compliments like crazy, so I decided to stick with it. At the time I still wasn't sure how to lose it quicker or really much about weight loss. All I knew is that I started exercising and of course I was curious and wanted to earn more. So one day as I was doing a little research, I read that the quickest way to lose weight is to eat 1500 calories or less a day. And sure enough, I ran with that idea. I started to track every single calorie. After about a week I was seeing amazing results on the scale and decided to cut my calories more, this pattern continued. And then the summer before my sophomore year came and I was down seventy-five pounds. Once again was getting compliments from everyone. I was working out more that summer and decided to stop tracking calories. I still wasn't eating enough though. And before I knew it I had developed disordered eating. I had been continuously eating like this until this May. In May I decided to seek help from a registered dietitian. She told me that I had done a lot of damage to my mental health mainly and possibly to my metabolism. She encouraged me to see a therapist so I did. I was diagnosed with ”other specified self-feeding disorder” This basically means that I went through all three major eating disorders such a short span of time I didn't meet all criteria and fall into a generalized category of all three disorders. I have been in recovery for bout three months now and m making progress. But of course, healing is not linear and every day will not be perfect. I am thankful for this journey as hard as it is because it truly has taught me that health does come in all shapes and sizes. And just because someone looks skinny does not mean they are healthy. And certainly just because someone looks overweight, it does not mean they are unhealthy. Genetics plays a major role that a stranger cannot identify at a glance. This journey has changed my outlook permanently on diet culture.

I just recently bought a new puppy. Her name is Tip, she is half Great Dane half Mastiff. She is a handful at only six months old. One of my favorite stories happened just the other day. I had just gotten home from school and let all three dogs out of the kennel. When we got inside, I set my bag down on the couch, and she jumped over the couch and got stuck in an attempt to jump on me. At first, I was surprised she could jump that high, then I broke out in laughter watching her.