Youth Initiative NourishED spreads awarenss of eating disorder through campaigns and events across the Bay Area

By Staff Writers Jessica Cao and Erika Liu

No one notices a restrictive eating disorder when it first begins. At first, it looks like the discipline of counting calories and following strict routines  before it spirals into a blur of numbers, paranoia, and self-judgment and crosses the point of no return. Eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, have the highest mortality rate of any other psychiatric disorder, with an estimated one death every 54 minutes.

This often-silent struggle shared by teenagers across the world is what pushed Juniors Siya Singh and Ashley Kang to start NourishED, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about eating disorders. What began as an initiative focused on teenage girls soon expanded to include teenagers across all genders. Through social media campaigns, community events, and partnerships with recovery clinics, NourishED aims to challenge harmful beauty standards and create spaces where conversations about eating disorders are no longer stigmatized.

Since its founding in July 2025, NourishED has organized over 20 different events, each categorized under the umbrellas of service, media, and awareness. Service events focus on helping those currently in recovery, with volunteers creating care packages and cards that are given to patients at local eating disorder recovery clinics. Media events include educational social media posts to interviews with professionals that aim to explain symptoms and help people determine warning signs and find recovery resources. Awareness events provide community members with direct education about eating disorders. Singh and Kang have presented at middle schools, set up information tables at farmers markets and other events or high-traffic locations and distributed brochures at tabling events in order to teach the public about eating disorders. 

Singh, who was always a light eater, struggled with body image issues in middle school, leading to her knowledge of eating disorders. Similarly, Kang’s sister experienced years of disordered eating, which greatly impacted her family life and relationships. Both recognized the significant stigma surrounding eating disorders, especially within the large Asian population of the Bay Area where cultural norms often suppress outward discussion of mental illness. Most also don’t know that anorexia nervosa can lead to organ failure, osteoporosis, muscle deterioration, hair loss, and depression. “It is a fatal disorder, but people don’t recognize that,” Kang said.

Singh described meeting one parent at a tabling event. Long ago, her daughter had confided to her that she had an eating disorder and wanted help. The mother had dismissed her. “And then now [the mother and daughter] are estranged,” Singh said as she was retelling the story. The mother, however, after learning more about eating disorders, had expressed gratitude toward the impact of Singh and Kang’s efforts. “She was like … I wish there were [organizations] like [NourishED] when I was … a younger parent, because then I could have understood how to help,” Singh said. 

Looking ahead, NourishED hopes to expand beyond the local community, eventually reaching students across the country and even internationally. They hope to add new members to their officer team, and are open to interested students reaching out through email to Singh or Kang. For now, they are focused on achieving something smaller, but just as meaningful: helping teenagers in the community realize they do not have to face their struggles alone.