Mental Health Australia
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Guest blog: Body image and eating disorder awareness week 2026: Redefining ‘Wellness’

2 September 2026

Guest blog by Dr Sarah Trobe, National Director, National Eating Disorders Collaboration 
for Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week (BIEDAW), held from 7 to 13 September

Each day as we move through the world, we will inevitably encounter messages about what it means to be ‘healthy’ or ‘well’. These messages appear across social media, advertising and in our everyday conversations, often presenting wellbeing as something that can be measured by how a person looks, what they eat, or how they choose to move their body.

These messages can become so familiar to us that we may not always pause to consider where they come from, whose interests they serve or the implications on our relationships with food, movement and our bodies.

Body Image and Eating Disorders Awareness Week (BIEDAW), held from 7 to 13 September, invites us to do just that. This year’s theme, Redefining ‘Wellness’ - Stories We’re Sold About Health and Our Bodies, encourages people across Australia to reflect on what wellbeing means to them.

Health and wellness messaging is often presented as a way to help us care for ourselves and feel well. BIEDAW encourages us to pause and look more closely at these messages, recognising that wellbeing is deeply personal and cannot be reduced to a set of rules, an appearance or a particular body size. 

These questions are particularly important when we talk about eating disorders.

Eating disorders are serious, complex mental health illnesses that can affect people of any age, gender, body size, cultural background, or socioeconomic circumstance. Eating disorders do not have a single cause, and involve a range of biological, psychological and sociocultural factors. Social and cultural messages around us can have an impact and body image concerns may form part of someone’s experience. Repeated and narrow ideas about health, bodies and wellbeing can influence how people see their bodies and themselves. These messages can be particularly difficult to navigate for people living with or recovering from an eating disorder.

Rather than blaming individuals for engaging with wellness content or assuming that all health messaging is harmful, the campaign aims to open thoughtful conversations about the messages we encounter and help people build the skills to ask questions about what may support their wellbeing and what may be unhelpful.

These conversations matter most when they are shaped by those who have experienced them. The insights of people with a lived experience of an eating disorder, and their families and supports, are central to understanding how wellness culture affects recovery and everyday life. These voices will help to turn awareness into change in our communities.

Creating a more inclusive understanding of wellbeing also means recognising the role of culture and community. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, social and emotional wellbeing is holistic, encompassing connection to family, community, culture and Country. When these perspectives and experiences are not reflected in health and wellbeing messaging, people may not see their understanding of wellbeing represented.

At NEDC, these conversations form part of a much broader commitment to improving Australia’s response to eating disorders through the implementation of the National Eating Disorders Strategy 2023-2033, Australia’s shared roadmap for a more effective, equitable and coordinated system of care for people experiencing or at risk of an eating disorder, their families and communities. That vision depends on everyone playing a role – people with lived experience, families, health professionals, researchers, service leaders, policymakers, educators, and communities.

This BIEDAW, your role can begin with pausing, asking questions and making space for the many ways people experience health and wellbeing.

 

BIEDAW is led by eating disorder organisations including NEDC, Australia & New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders, Butterfly Foundation, Eating Disorders Families Australia, Eating Disorders Queensland, Eating Disorders Victoria, and the InsideOut Institute. For more information on BIEDAW and how you can get involved, please visit https://butterfly.org.au/get-involved/campaigns/biedaw-2026/

To learn more about NEDC and Australia’s National Eating Disorder Strategy, head to www.nedc.com.au today.

Looking for support?

If you or a loved one are experiencing concerns related to body image, food or eating, you are not alone and help is available:

  • Contact the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 33 4673 (1800 ED HOPE), or visit the Butterfly website to chat online or email. Support is available from 8am to midnight (AEST/AEDT), 7 days a week.
  • Contact the Eating Disorders Victoria Hub on 1300 550 236, weekdays from 9.30am to 4.30pm.
  • For 24-hour crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 to speak with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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