The name Ophelia is derived from the Greek “ophelos”— in English, “help.” In William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Ophelia — riddled by grief over the loss of her father and the lack of support from those around her — died by suicide.

For Mary Ellen Clausen of Ophelia’s Place in Liverpool, the namesake of her nonprofit was dedicated to the famous Shakespearean character in the belief that if she were alive today, its resources would have been able to save her.

In 2002, Clausen found herself at a loss after both of her daughters were diagnosed with eating disorders. At the time, there were few resources available in the greater Syracuse community that could provide the comprehensive support needed for teenagers and young adults battling eating disorders and related body image dissatisfaction.

Seventeen years later, Ophelia’s Place has become a fixture in the Liverpool community, aiming to educate people on how to best nourish their body through food, and their soul through healing.

Ophelia’s Place opened a locally-produced cafe in 2009, Cafe at 407, where all proceeds go toward funding the nonprofit. Its menu features locally-sourced and sustainable products, including sandwiches, salads and grain bowls along with coffee drinks and pastries. Molly Gibbs | Photo Editor

Feb. 25 through March 3 marks the National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, hosted by the National Eating Disorders Association — 2019’s theme, NEDA announced, is “Come As You Are,” designed as a more inclusive approach to the stories and lived experiences of everyone struggling with disordered eating.

“Eating disorders can impact anyone, no matter their size, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, social economic status or ethnicity,” said Claire Mysko, CEO of NEDA, in the awareness week’s press release. “With ‘Come As You Are,’ we are sending a clear message that everyone deserves body acceptance and are welcome in the NEDA community.”

Holly Lowery, education and communications director at Ophelia’s Place, said that community outreach has always been at the forefront of the nonprofit’s vision. She added that a core reason Clausen started the organization was because of the stigmatized culture and lack of resources provided to those with eating disorders.

“That was sort of where this all came from, was the fact that in our community, we didn’t really have any solid support spaces for folks and their families who were struggling,” Lowery said. “It really was created out of this need for community.”

At least 30 million people suffer from an eating disorder in the United States, according to a 2016 report compiled by the Eating Disorders Coalition. Out of all mental illnesses, anorexia has the highest mortality rate, with a person dying of eating disorder-related complications every 62 minutes.

Ophelia’s Place, Lowery said, was founded on three central principles: connecting those struggling with disordered eating to treatment options, assisting individuals and their families through support groups and individual consultations and educating and empowering the masses. As the nonprofit has accumulated more funding, resources and staff members in the past year and a half, Lowery said the evolution of Ophelia’s Place has been tenfold.

“It has such a ripple effect,” she said. “The more we can educate others, hopefully in the long term, the less folks we’ll end up having to connect resources to because we’ll be preventing these things from developing in the first place.”

But eating disorders do not always manifest themselves in clinical diagnoses and extreme case scenarios. At Ophelia’s Place, this provided the inspiration for their “Every Body Is Beautiful Project,” created one year ago as a re-envisioning of their previous “Circles of Change” program.

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

“What we’re looking to do is to empower folks to really start redefining beauty ideals, disrupting cultural norms around beauty, health, weight, size — all of that,” Lowery said. “Right off the bat, it sort of grabs people and aims, I think, to help make everybody feel invited to this conversation and to feel hopefully a little bit more empowered and wanting to change the culture.”

This sentiment expressed through the Every Body Is Beautiful Project extends beyond the streets of Liverpool. Particularly within the fashion and beauty industries, public figures at Syracuse University and surrounding communities are using their platforms to further reduce the stigma surrounding disordered eating. This is the first step, Lowery said, in promoting inclusivity within the body positivity movement.

For Emme, an SU alumna and professional supermodel, disordered eating and body image issues extend, largely in part, from the normalization of body criticism and unattainable physical standards in today’s culture. This has only been exacerbated, she said, by the rising prevalence of social media.

“Girls and boys question the validity of their bodies as it is,” Emme said. “You have some people who don’t eat enough and they have anorexia, and yet some people cannot stop eating and that’s called obesity. But then there’s all this stuff in-between.”

This in-between buffer, Emme said, is where most Americans reside, with 68 percent of American women wearing at least a size 14. But when it comes to the fashion runways or the glossy pages of magazines, historically, these women have not been depicted as an authentic reality.

“The more we can communicate about what’s unique and genuine and how important that is, it’s going to allow people to kind of relax and filter what they see, what they read and what they’re exposed to make money off of their insecurities,” she said.

Ophelia’s Place’s cafe aims to provide food that “nourishes the body, feeds the soul and builds community around it,” its walls featuring positive affirmations to promote body positivity. Molly Gibbs | Photo Editor

As a member of the fashion community and the “world’s first plus-size supermodel,” Emme stressed the importance of luxury fashion brands extending their designs to plus-sized women. Women of all shapes and sizes, Emme said, want to feel sexy and beautiful in their skin. For this reason, she said she was inspired to partner with SU’s School of Design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts five years ago for the launch of its program, “Fashion Without Limits.”

FWL was created to help increase the versatility and inclusivity of the fashion industry, with an emphasis on designing for sizes 12 and higher. Eighteen SU students are competing in this year’s competition, designing for the American Heart Association. Winners of the competition will be announced on Wednesday and will be featured in AHA’s annual fashion show, per Emme.

Jeffrey Mayer, a professor of fashion, fashion history and textiles in SU’s School of Design, helped coordinate the program after Emme first approached him about the lack of accessibility for women of all sizes to incorporate luxury fashion designs into their wardrobe.

Coming from a traditional fashion education in the 1980s and 1990s, Mayer said that the idea of inclusive fashion wasn’t at the forefront of industry conversations because of the size of traditional models at the time. It wasn’t until Emme asked him why he wasn’t working on these designs with his students, he said, that the “aha” moment clicked.

“When 60 percent of America is over a size 16 and we’re only making clothes for below that, what we’re telling that 60 percent is that they they’re not valuable,” Mayer said. “And it’s frightening, really.”

FWL, Mayer said, is more than a specialty course designed to check off a quota for his students. As the program has continually grown and evolved, he said that what was once a culture shock to freshmen entering into the major’s curriculum has become ingrained into every stage of the design process. That intuition, he said, has been gratifying to witness.

“What we’re starting at the grassroots level here with our students is going to become mainstream,” Mayer said. “Why are we telling people that they’re less beautiful? Our students don’t want to do that. They want everyone to feel included in what they’re doing.”

As prominent figures like Ashley Graham and fashion campaigns such as AerieREAL have become staples in mainstream fashion, Emme said the authenticity of these figures and movements are what have translated most to consumers. Seeing images of yourself reflected as a beauty ideal, Emme added, is not for nothing. The time has passed, she said, when brands can afford to limit their definition of beauty to a size zero, seven-foot-tall model.

“If these conversations don’t continue, the fashion industry is not going to survive,” she said. “Period.”

Published on February 24, 2019 at 10:13 pm

Contact Kelsey: katho101@syr.edu | @writtenbykelsey