How online doom scroll of 'toxic fitspo content' led to eating disorder

New data reveals how normalised negative body talk has become among Australians Wed 5 Aug 2026 at 6:30am An avalanche of "toxic fitspo" content online was the catalyst for Isabella Charon's eating disorder, but its roots lay in her time in the modelling industry. At 14, Ms Charon started modelling and soon felt she had to change her body to fit a certain standard implied within the industry. "The specific body measurements and the ideals they had for models was quite disturbing … so I had that in the back of my head," she said. In her late teenage years, during a COVID-19 lockdown, the warning signs of an eating disorder began to emerge. "I think being chronically online, as any teenager is, I saw a surge of 'fitspo' content that was coming out, and it was quite harmful being a young girl who was very impressionable," the Sydney woman said. "Some creators were severely under-eating while also promoting exercise." Ms Charon found herself not properly nourishing her body, isolating herself from loved ones, and avoiding going out for food with friends. "I became so sick that there was a risk of being hospitalised … there was so much at stake." Approximately 4 per cent of Australians are living with an eating disorder, according to the National Eating Disorder Collaboration. 51pc skipping meals, new data says New data from the Butterfly Foundation has revealed how normalised negative body talk has become. The national charity surveyed 1,300 respondents and found more than half said they had skipped meals because of how they felt about their body. Eighty-four per cent said they found it harder to speak kindly or positively about their own body and appearance than someone else's. About one in three said feelings about their body had stopped them from shopping for clothes, pursuing a romantic relationship, or participating in physical activity or sport either quite a bit or all the time. Head of prevention services at the Butterfly Foundation, Helen Bird, said the organisation had seen a consistent and persistent picture of body dissatisfaction among Australian young people. "The findings are not that surprising, but what it does do is put a number to it," she said of the latest survey results, now specific to Australian adults. "When we have negative self-talk continuously as background noise in our head, that's really cumulative and it becomes entrenched. "If you feel that way it's then really hard to take good care of yourself." Ms Bird said body image did not exist in a vacuum, but was influenced by what people heard, saw and what was modelled around them. "It might be growing up in a household where a parent makes comments about their own body in a negative way. "It could be the team culture in a sporting group where the coach is constantly praising a teammate because they look lean. "Or it could be conversations in the classroom where we talk about what we eat and don't eat in a good versus bad way." The impact of 'everyday comments' For Ms Charon, now 22, recovery has not been a linear journey, but she has overcome her eating disorder. She credited her family, partner and professional support with helping her, and encouraged those concerned about a loved one to have a gentle conversation and seek out resources. "If you know someone who is going through an eating disorder, you have to be gentle on them and yourself because self-hate and negative talk are what fuels it," she said. The survey also found nearly half of parents said they were unsure where to seek support for a child experiencing body image concerns or an eating disorder. Ms Bird encouraged families to access free resources via the Butterfly Foundation's BodyKind program, a free annual initiative supporting young people's body image. "We want people to be engaging more in positive health promoting behaviours. We move our bodies for enjoyment, we eat intuitively, and for both nourishment and fun," she said. "Those everyday comments and actions might seem inconsequential, but actually they aren't." Ms Charon is now happy, healthy and an advocate for eating disorder awareness. "I wasn't letting myself live … I am grateful that I was brave enough to come out the other side,"she said.