Eating disorders and the modelling industry: Shaun's story

These days, Shaun seems the personification of confidence: working as a mental health advocate, giving Ted Talks, and visiting eating disorder treatment wards to share his story.

But Shaun’s outlook hasn’t always been this positive. Starting out as a model in his early twenties, his relationship with his body image became incredibly disordered. “I compared myself very heavily to the other male models around me”, he says, “which sent me down the rabbit hole of constantly thinking ‘how can I lose weight?’”

Things weren’t helped by the industry’s apparent obsession with appearance, no matter the cost to its models’ health. Shaun thinks back to one particular meeting with an agent based in France. “Looking now at pictures of me from that day, I was so emaciated”, he says. “But the first thing she said to me was ‘you look amazing!’”.

Beginning therapy and gaining an OCD diagnosis at 27 years old was fundamental to Shaun’s recovery journey. Having lived through a series of family tragedies and his own health issues, in therapy Shaun was forced to face the trauma from his past he’d been suppressing, and understand how it had affected his mental health. “For a very long time my brain was just trying to help me survive”, he says.

Through therapy techniques including REBT and CBT, he’s been able to heal his relationship to body image, food and overall sense of self-worth. “I’ve learnt I’m still loveable irrespective of what I look like”.

Shaun credits his therapist with helping him in his recovery and subsequent journey to becoming an advocate in his own right – but close family members haven’t always been as supportive. “They weren’t necessarily fans of me speaking about my mental health struggles”, he remembers. “With my mum, we never spoke about some of what she went through herself… so I had to learn to find my own language, to navigate what I was experiencing”. Shaun’s thankful that his own generation seem more open to speaking up. “It’s becoming more celebrated for us to not have to hide in the shadows with our struggles”.

While attitudes to eating disorders and mental health do seem to be changing, in Shaun’s view there is still much work to be done to widen representation. As a black man, he can feel isolated from the public discourse. “I do think often eating disorders are misunderstood because we still mainly attribute them to middle class, white young girls”, he says. To him, more research is key. “We misunderstand the issue when it comes to other races and cultures, because it hasn’t been studied”.

“I do also think it’s hard for people to understand something they haven’t gone through themselves”, Shaun reflects. So, what can we do to help change the narrative? “Real life stories are massively important”, he says. “We need to let people know that this is not just a specific class or race issue, but a human issue”.

It is this belief that drives Shaun in his own advocacy work, sharing his journey with as many people as will listen. “If me telling my story doesn’t show you that anyone can suffer from disordered eating or mental health issues, then nothing will”.

You can find out more about Shaun's story by watching Shaun's TED Talk and visiting his instagram.