Sophie Perrenoud first needed to get help for herself — and now she’s forging a path to lending others a vital hand in the realm of eating disorder recovery.
After having a shaky relationship with food beginning in fifth grade, things took a bad turn during the summer between her freshman and sophomore years at Mercer Island High School (MIHS), she said.
Returning home after soccer conditioning, she barely ate, adding that she wasn’t even eating a meal a day.
“It really got to the point where I was afraid to take medicine at some point because I was scared of the calories it might contain. I was scared having an extra blueberry because, again, like, calories,” Perrenoud, now 17 and a MIHS rising senior, said on a recent afternoon.
She added that the food culture in high school becomes worse with other girls also struggling with their body images.
“I think a really big part of that was my whole life (I’ve) been labeled as skinny. When you go through puberty, your body’s going to go through changes naturally. But for me, I was almost scared that I was going to be losing that part of my identity,” said Perrenoud, noting that her brother first noticed there was something wrong and then she eventually went to the doctor with her concerned mother.