Note: this article includes discussion of eating disorders and eating disorder recovery. To seek help for yourself or a loved one, please reach out to the National Eating Disorders Association.
The video opens on Allie Ostrander, clad in a cutoff t-shirt and hyperventilating. It’s June of 2021 and Ostrander has a message for her fans. The words are delicate, though, and fear is palpable. She pauses, breathes deeply, and begins to speak.
“Yesterday marked five weeks, for me, of intensive eating disorder treatment,” says the professional track runner and three-time NCAA steeplechase champion. At the time, she is in a partial-hospitalization program, and “eating disorder” is a diagnosis she has never shared publicly before. But her silence is about to end: the YouTube video will eventually amass 93,000 views.
Nearly two years later, 26-year-old Ostrander continues to take fans along for the ups and downs of recovery. Her outspokenness trickles into her professional career, as she recently signed a new sponsorship contract with NNormal, a company that supports her mental health advocacy in addition to her…
