BE BODY CONFIDENT every day!

Danae Mercer built an Instagram following of 2.3 million by exposing social media techniques that create idealised images of women. Here she talks to Eve Boggenpoel about how she overcame anorexia, learnt to love herself and how you can do the same

- Danae Mercer

'My healing journey took quite a few steps. To start with, Creighton University (my university at the time) booked me in with a nutritionist, a therapist and a nurse, multiple times a week for around a year. This helped me start to claw my way out of the dark hole that was my eating disorder. Then, I really leaned on sports at Cambridge University to help continue my healing journey. I joined the modern pentathlon team. For the first time in my life, I began viewing my body not through the lens of how it looked, but for the incredible, powerful things it could do. I saw other women doing the same. We all ate to fuel movement and moved to be stronger. It was amazing.

'It took a long time to be comfortable in my skin - and, if I'm honest, sometimes I'm still on that journey. But that's one of the things I've learned along the way: self-love isn't a "place", it's more of a "process". Now, sport and working out help me maintain a healthy relationship with my body. Exercise is my "me" time - a place where I connect with myself and turn off the outside world - and that's crucial for feeling confident. But we have to choose it every single day. And when it's hard to love ourselves, we can still respect ourselves through eating, moving, resting and tuning in to what we need.