Megan Jayne Crabbe, now 31, was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 14. She became fixated on dieting before turning 10, and as puberty hit, she restricted food to manage anxiety. Despite reaching her 'goal weight', she still felt unhappy, leading her to discover the online body positive community at 21.
Crabbe spent months in mental health facilities and was hospitalised with a feeding tube after her body began shutting down. A turning point came when her father broke down in tears, prompting her to commit to recovery. However, she relapsed into diet culture after being declared recovered at 17.
Now a leading voice in body positivity, Crabbe appears in music videos and writes books on self-empowerment. She reshaped her environment by setting boundaries with friends who discussed weight loss and disengaging from triggering influencers. She credits reconnecting with her body through movement and intuitive eating as key to her healing.
“The problem was not me. The problem was how we are taught to see ourselves,” she says. “My eating disorder years were trying to detach from my body and feel nothing. And now the goal is to be with my body and listen to her.”
