Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW) is an annual campaign to educate the public about the realities of eating disorders and to provide hope and visibility to individuals and loved ones impacted by eating disorders.
With Black History Month in February, Women’s History Month in March, and International Women’s Day March 8th, it is important to note that women and marginalized communities are particularly adversely affected.
Eating Disorders Awareness Week
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW) is a national campaign to raise awareness about eating disorders, challenge stigma, and provide hope and support to all those impacted.
In 2026, NEDAW takes place February 23–March 1, with the theme Every BODY Belongs. Eating disorders affect 30 million Americans across all ages, sizes, races, genders, and backgrounds. Too often, people go unseen or unsupported due to stigma, misinformation, and barriers to care. This #NEDAW, we come together to fight for change, commit to change, and remind everyone that every body belongs.
Message of Hope
Proud to announce that this is my 4th year as an NEDAW Collaborator!
For 2026, I shared a Message of Hope on my Instagram Feed/Story and my YouTube Channel to amplify encouragement across the community, sharing that:
I have personally witnessed bias, limiting societal ideals, distorted body image, restriction in our society, exacerbated in the high-pressure world of classical ballet.
However, if you have or are recovering from an eating disorder, or know someone who is, there is hope. It is possible to heal, to recover, to reinvent our relationship with our bodies, food and eating at any age!
At 44 I have worked hard and continue to resist diet culture, take morality out of eating, disrupt body policing/surveillance, comparison, negative comments (about self or others), in favor of healing my relationship with food, eating, and my body.
I am committed to doing what I can to continue to improve in my teaching and coaching work, promoting nourishment, sense of self-worth, access to needed treatment, and appreciation for the whole range of human embodiment.
Lots of valuable resources are collected in my article Building a Healthy Relationship with Body & Food.
Let’s come together to fight for change, commit to change, and remind every person impacted by eating disorders that they are not alone because #EveryBODYBelongs.
Every Body Belongs
This year’s theme is Every BODY Belongs. Our goal is to create urgency around the need to recognize eating disorders as a public health concern and to push the importance of early detection through screenings, funding research, and accessible treatment and resources because:
- Every Body Matters
- Every Body’s Voice Matters
- Every Body Deserves Compassion
- Every Body Deserves Treatment
- Every Body Deserves Support
- Every Body Deserves Hope
- Every Body Deserves Change
My Commitment
Myself, I re-commit to body-positivity/neutrality/inclusion and adaptivity in my classes and programs, to rejecting diet culture, fatphobia, and negative body size bias. I will continue to grow in my relationship to food, eating, and body diversity, as it is a lifelong journey!
In ballet and Mindful Movement classes and coaching, in-person and online, I seek to offer an open and accepting perspective and well as referrals and resources as needed. Grateful for NEDA’s toolkits for Educators, Coaches, and Loved Ones.
The best way to keep up-to-date on everything I’m coaching, teaching, creating and sharing about as well as my favorite work from other creators is to subscribe to my email newsletter. Would love to be connected to you there, on social media, online or in-person!
“You’re not the problem, it’s the culture of dance that you have grown up in, it’s also society and the world we live in, your body is not the one to blame.”
– Fumi Somehara, Dietician, “Dancing Body Acceptance“ podcast
Questions for Reflection
- What is your relationship with body, food, eating?
- Could you or someone you know benefit from an Eating Disorders assessment?
- Which organizations do you know of who do good work in the area of Eating Disorder education, prevention, and treatment?
- What resources does my community need and how can I connect them?
- How can I support you in taking exquisite care of yourself so that you may dance through difficulty?
Look forward to sharing how in March I am taking part in International Women’s Day and invite you to special events for Dance Week, Coaching Week and more coming up soon!
Take good care of yourself until then, thanks for reading, for being, for moving together in spirit or in fact.
Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst, they/she
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
dance through difficulty
take leaps of faith
DISCLAIMER: A Blythe Coach recommends that you consult your physician regarding the applicability of any recommendations and follow all safety instructions before beginning any exercise program. When participating in any exercise or exercise program, there is the possibility of physical injury. If you engage in this exercise or exercise program, you agree that you do so at your own risk, are voluntarily participating in these activities, assume all risk of injury to yourself.