ED Recovery Influencers/Vloggers

[xylonkinder]

anyone here follow Stephanie Marie Frank? I really like her and enjoy the random food combos she throws together

[likestolurk]

Has anyone watched Macy Eleni? She is a little over the top, but doesn't rant constantly about recovery like Jen Bretty.

[ihatetheinternet]

SO I somehow came across this ED recovery youtube called Elzani and I just get the weirdest vibes from her and her family. You can tell she is so beyond obsessed with food that honestly it's upsetting to watch. I'd be interested to know others opinions on her as something is just so off and I can't put my finger on it.

I agree. A lot of the comments on her videos urge her to get help from a therapist, but she never replies to those. It's really strange how she isn't seeing (or if she is, she's never mentioned it) some type of professional to help her. The way she relies on her mother, in particular, is very sad.

[emlamp10n]

I can’t stand MerryRose Howley. She triggers me soooo much! That girl has such a restrictive diet and she promotes it as a recovery diet. More like how to obsess over making sure everything that you eat is healthy and plant based and natural and no added sugar and « clean ». I’m sorry but that girl has some serious orthorexic tendencies.


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[treelee]

I can’t stand MerryRose Howley. She triggers me soooo much! That girl has such a restrictive diet and she promotes it as a recovery diet. More like how to obsess over making sure everything that you eat is healthy and plant based and natural and no added sugar and « clean ». I’m sorry but that girl has some serious orthorexic tendencies.


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Thank you. I commented probably a year back about that and she told me that my concern was a reflection of my own ED. Never mind I’ve been in recovery longer and can smell bullshit a mile away. I used to sit and seethe about how Unrecovered these “recovery bloggers” are but now I can’t even watch. They’re all the same. “Conquering” the same fear food over and over living their life revolves around food. Bonus points if they’re vegan but you’re pretty sure it’s not for the animals.


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[emlamp10n]

What is up with StefMarie? She’s been making recovery FDOE videos for A YEAR AND A HALF.... like wtf?! Is she ever actually going to be recovered or is she just living in a constant in between state (not recovered but not fully sick). It’s been 2 years and she still hasn’t reached a healthy weight... does she even truly apply all of the advice she preaches??
I used to love her but now I’m seriously starting to ask myself some questions


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[treelee]

What is up with StefMarie? She’s been making recovery FDOE videos for A YEAR AND A HALF.... like wtf?! Is she ever actually going to be recovered or is she just living in a constant in between state (not recovered but not fully sick). It’s been 2 years and she still hasn’t reached a healthy weight... does she even truly apply all of the advice she preaches??
I used to love her but now I’m seriously starting to ask myself some questions


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Nope. You can weight restore real quick if you put your mind to it. She's totally just sitting at a spot where the doctors aren't pushing because she won't keel over dead tomorrow, but she's not healthy. Quasi-recovery is what almost every SM recovery persona I've encountered falls under. If they ever get their ass off SM and stop posting FDOE they might just be recovering.

[emlamp10n]

What is up with StefMarie? She’s been making recovery FDOE videos for A YEAR AND A HALF.... like wtf?! Is she ever actually going to be recovered or is she just living in a constant in between state (not recovered but not fully sick). It’s been 2 years and she still hasn’t reached a healthy weight... does she even truly apply all of the advice she preaches??
I used to love her but now I’m seriously starting to ask myself some questions


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Nope. You can weight restore real quick if you put your mind to it. She's totally just sitting at a spot where the doctors aren't pushing because she won't keel over dead tomorrow, but she's not healthy. Quasi-recovery is what almost every SM recovery persona I've encountered falls under. If they ever get their ass off SM and stop posting FDOE they might just be recovering.

It’s just so hypocritical. She’s like: « just eat more, you want to gain weight as fast as possible so all of this over. » meanwhile, 2 years later still hasn’t fully restored a healthy weight. Like girl?! Do what you preach. And also she promotes variety.. she literally has been eating the same thing every day for 2 years, like I actually know what she’s going to eat before I watch her video and I’m always right... oh wait now she eats spinach, that’s new


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[LipstickLashes]

SO I somehow came across this ED recovery youtube called Elzani and I just get the weirdest vibes from her and her family. You can tell she is so beyond obsessed with food that honestly it's upsetting to watch. I'd be interested to know others opinions on her as something is just so off and I can't put my finger on it.

Elzani is a strange one I agree. She has severe OCD/Ritualistic tendencies coinciding with her anorexia and for 22/23 she is extremely immature and dependent on her mother.
She appears to enjoy food when she actually allows herself to have it but that isn't before she's spoken to the camera about it e.g. 'biscoff spread' for at least 20 minutes first.
Her sisters seem more a bit more normal at least. I wonder what they think of having a big sister like this. Elzani needs real professional help before her mother has a breakdown .

[i_cannot_even]

SO I somehow came across this ED recovery youtube called Elzani and I just get the weirdest vibes from her and her family. You can tell she is so beyond obsessed with food that honestly it's upsetting to watch. I'd be interested to know others opinions on her as something is just so off and I can't put my finger on it.

Elzani is a strange one I agree. She has severe OCD/Ritualistic tendencies coinciding with her anorexia and for 22/23 she is extremely immature and dependent on her mother.
She appears to enjoy food when she actually allows herself to have it but that isn't before she's spoken to the camera about it e.g. 'biscoff spread' for at least 20 minutes first.
Her sisters seem more a bit more normal at least. I wonder what they think of having a big sister like this. Elzani needs real professional help before her mother has a breakdown .

I cannot believe she is 22! She acts very infantile. Also, it seems like she does not study/have a job. I understand that she is probably too to ill to do any of that, but it seems to be contributing to her obsession with food. If she doesn't have anything to do besides talking about food and filming her "recovery", then how can you expect her to become less attached to food?
She seems like a genuinely sweet person. She is just very very ill. And yes, I agree that her family is very weird. They are all super supportive, but she needs someone to give her a reality check.

[idontknowwhat]

Thank you. I commented probably a year back about that and she told me that my concern was a reflection of my own ED. Never mind I’ve been in recovery longer and can smell bullshit a mile away. I used to sit and seethe about how Unrecovered these “recovery bloggers” are but now I can’t even watch. They’re all the same. “Conquering” the same fear food over and over living their life revolves around food. Bonus points if they’re vegan but you’re pretty sure it’s not for the animals.


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Honestly, I watch Merryrose strictly when I want to see someone who is incredibly skinny and eats incredibly clean because I want to be like that... so it pisses me off that she says she's fully recovered and then tells others who criticize her that they're just projecting their own ED onto her; it's incredibly triggering. FFS, she drinks a giant cup of coffee with a teaspoon of almond milk every morning and eats, like, nothing but carrots and apples for snacks in between meals... and every other video is a "what I eat in a day." I'm not gonna tell her she's not recovered because that feels kind of armchair, but at the very least she could stop making videos about her clean eating with her tiny body as thumbnails.

[sparda]

I love Rebecca Leung everyday more. Her videos are unusually smart in the ED recovery community.

[Angelsrest8]

I love Rebecca Leung everyday more. Her videos are unusually smart in the ED recovery community.

Normally I am a big fan of her but the last video was so not okay for me. I really do not like that she kinda used her mum for her video and forced herself like this and someone sat next to her filming her whily crying a good 10-20-30 minutes. This is just so wrong.

[macro friendly]

I love Rebecca Leung everyday more. Her videos are unusually smart in the ED recovery community.

Normally I am a big fan of her but the last video was so not okay for me. I really do not like that she kinda used her mum for her video and forced herself like this and someone sat next to her filming her whily crying a good 10-20-30 minutes. This is just so wrong.

Completely agree. It was almost like comparing an ED to cancer and just something about it completely rubbed me the wrong way. I want to like her but there's something about her that makes me raise an eyebrow. I haven't checked in a while but once I clicked on the link to her 'website' in her YT bio and apparently she offers ED recovery coaching which screams bad idea.

[wilmadawn]

I love Rebecca Leung everyday more. Her videos are unusually smart in the ED recovery community.

Normally I am a big fan of her but the last video was so not okay for me. I really do not like that she kinda used her mum for her video and forced herself like this and someone sat next to her filming her whily crying a good 10-20-30 minutes. This is just so wrong.

Completely agree. It was almost like comparing an ED to cancer and just something about it completely rubbed me the wrong way. I want to like her but there's something about her that makes me raise an eyebrow. I haven't checked in a while but once I clicked on the link to her 'website' in her YT bio and apparently she offers ED recovery coaching which screams bad idea.

same. her mom should have been the main focus of that video and not her trying to get to 5k calories b.c she wanted to challenge herself for her mom.
i was embarrassed for her after watching and if shes truly offering ED recovery "coaching" then i can't roll my eyes enough. not qualified, how many times do people need to hear this? You had/have an ED, you arent' qualified to help anyone else recover. good god.

[treelee]

I love Rebecca Leung everyday more. Her videos are unusually smart in the ED recovery community.

Normally I am a big fan of her but the last video was so not okay for me. I really do not like that she kinda used her mum for her video and forced herself like this and someone sat next to her filming her whily crying a good 10-20-30 minutes. This is just so wrong.

Completely agree. It was almost like comparing an ED to cancer and just something about it completely rubbed me the wrong way. I want to like her but there's something about her that makes me raise an eyebrow. I haven't checked in a while but once I clicked on the link to her 'website' in her YT bio and apparently she offers ED recovery coaching which screams bad idea.

same. her mom should have been the main focus of that video and not her trying to get to 5k calories b.c she wanted to challenge herself for her mom.
i was embarrassed for her after watching and if shes truly offering ED recovery "coaching" then i can't roll my eyes enough. not qualified, how many times do people need to hear this? You had/have an ED, you arent' qualified to help anyone else recover. good god.

OOF she does offer coaching on her website. No just no, she's barely "recovered" herself, as if that qualifies her in any way. Also, does she do anything besides YT and "coaching"? I don't think so. I'm wondering the type of privilege she has to have spent a year or two in residential treatment in the US. She's foreign so no way it was through insurance. I looked through my insurance charges of 6 months of various levels of treatment and that was over 200k. Not that it really changes her, but I think it could explain why she doesn't have much motivation to recover and get on with her life if she's pretty much taken care of. She's somewhat likable but honestly I tire of seeing her try challenge after challenge and the 5000 cal challenge rubbed me the wrong way too. I'm glad people use it as motivation to challenge EDs though instead of these faux recovered people like MerryRose. I think what bothers me most though is that her body is pretty unattainable for most people in recovery (especially at first when you gain a lot of weight around vital organs aka midsection) so I think it'll set up people for a lot of comparisons and bad body image. I think even someone here asked how to get her body... which just nope.

[emlamp10n]

Couldn’t agree more. It makes people expect to have her body after/during recovery but unfortunately it’s just not realistic and it ends up discouraging a lot of people when they see that it’s not the case. Also it may be just me but I kind of don’t believe that she’s not working out... there’s just so much genetics can do.


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[sparda]

Normally I am a big fan of her but the last video was so not okay for me. I really do not like that she kinda used her mum for her video and forced herself like this and someone sat next to her filming her whily crying a good 10-20-30 minutes. This is just so wrong.

I don't know, her mom was an active part in it, unlike someone else's video (cough cough Stephanie Buttermore cough cough), and the crying part wasn't exploited to make views, unlike someone else's video again.

OOF she does offer coaching on her website. No just no, she's barely "recovered" herself, as if that qualifies her in any way. Also, does she do anything besides YT and "coaching"?

As far as I understood she's a theater actress.

Couldn’t agree more. It makes people expect to have her body after/during recovery but unfortunately it’s just not realistic and it ends up discouraging a lot of people when they see that it’s not the case. Also it may be just me but I kind of don’t believe that she’s not working out... there’s just so much genetics can do.
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I don't see particularly wrong with her body. I was more or less the same and I never stepped foot in a gym once in my life (before my ED, that is).

[lunaluvgood]

I can't believe how much weight Christie Swadling has lost now. Its worrying that she was selling that gut reset diet and showing her workout plan. All of the top rated comments on her vids for the last few months have been that of concern.

[RandoPotato]

I can’t stand MerryRose Howley. She triggers me soooo much! That girl has such a restrictive diet and she promotes it as a recovery diet. More like how to obsess over making sure everything that you eat is healthy and plant based and natural and no added sugar and « clean ». I’m sorry but that girl has some serious orthorexic tendencies.

Thank you. I commented probably a year back about that and she told me that my concern was a reflection of my own ED. Never mind I’ve been in recovery longer and can smell bullshit a mile away. I used to sit and seethe about how Unrecovered these “recovery bloggers” are but now I can’t even watch. They’re all the same. “Conquering” the same fear food over and over living their life revolves around food.

I saw her anorexia story videos yesterday, and I knew I recognized her name from this thread. She said her worst relapse was in 2018, so she only very recently had her lowest point with her ED, and thinks she's had enough time working on serious recovery effort (IP, IOP, continuing therapy, plus monitored weight restoration while she was in, and continued monitoring for a long time afterward) to he "helping" anyone else? Most of the commenters pointed out that if she was recovered she wouldn't still be demonizing the hospital, she'd be understanding of their methods, and why they had to treat her so seriously in regards to keeping her there, especially the NG tube.

She sounds like right now she's right were she was at after her first hospitalization, she's still got the same patterns, mindset, restrictive tendencies,a nd rules (except at least then it looked like she had restored more weight than she is now).

You need to restore weight just to have your brain function well enough to work on the therapeutic process, the process as a whole takes more than just a year. Deciding to hop on the internet, pretending everything's fine, putting yourself at the mercy of public youtube comments, instead of focusing on yourself and your health is a horrible idea.