What might the presentation cover?
Virginia spent the first decade of her career writing about food, body image, weight and dieting —usually from the perspective of how to do it all better. As a health and lifestyle journalist, she had an inside track on the rise of “wellness” based diet culture, reporting on “foodie” trends like clean eating, detoxing and baby led weaning for national magazines. But when her newborn daughter stopped eating during a medical crisis, Virginia spent two years teaching her how to feel safe around food again — and in the process, realized just how many of us are struggling to do the same thing. She began to see how the pressure to feed our kids and ourselves perfectly stems from a patriarchal cultural narrative that disconnects us from our bodies by creating unrealistic standards around food, weight and health. In the decade since becoming a parent, Virginia’s work has shifted to exploring how we can divest from diet culture —and why that starts with naming and unlearning our own anti-fat bias. Virginia has strategies for building a more weight-inclusive world that are useful to parents, healthcare providers, educators, and workplaces of every kind. She weaves research, personal narrative and analysis of diet culture together into an insightful and provocative talk.

Who can benefit from hearing Virginia’s story?
Anyone who has struggled with an eating disorder personally, or is close to someone who has; parents of picky eaters; people interested in learning more about how diet culture affects us all; people interested in examining their own relationship with food and eating; students studying food and food systems; diet and wellness professionals; educators trying to make classrooms and activities welcoming for kids of all body sizes; healthcare providers working to unlearn their biases.

Great! When can she talk?
You can contact Ariel Lewiton of the Tuesday Agency (917.277.5850, ariel@tuesdayagency.com) to ask about booking Virginia for your event.