Miss America, Advocate Against Eating Disorders

You wouldn't be alone if you thought that the Miss America pageant places an emphasis on appearance that would tend to push impressionable viewers toward eating disorders. Yet the personal platform of Miss America 2008, Kirsten Haglund, is eating disorder awareness.

Haglund is four years removed from anorexia nervosa herself. I find it interesting that at one time she wanted to be a professional ballerina. Haglund says that the profession ignores eating disorders.

Now she's teamed with the Eating Disorders Coalition, an organization that seeks to influence public policy (for instance, they've lobbied Congress for mental health parity) on disordered eating.

My hope is that this combination of beauty pageant participant and eating disorders advocate will arouse curiosity in those who are battling eating disorders. She demonstrates that there are bigger things out there than watching calories.

• Miss America's ED history
• Like ballet, modeling is a prime activity for eating disorder development
• What if I have a friend who has an eating disorder?