ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Every story of living with an eating disorder is unique.

“My daughter was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 12. It was a very scary time and I did not know how to take care of my daughter and her illness,” parent Michelle Morales said.

Tackling the stereotypes and misconceptions about what eating disorders look like and who they impact, the National Eating Disorder Association sheds light on this issue.

“Eating disorders are diseases of disconnection, which means that their goal is to disconnect the patient from their own genuine thoughts, feelings and needs and disconnect them from people who love and care for them,” said Mary Tantillo, director for the Western New York Comprehensive Care Center for Eating Disorders.

Organizers offer not only resources, but also art, inviting Jessica Borchert to display her pieces of body positivity.

“In our world, we have so many different messages of diet culture and different painful marginalization that people experience just because their body size is different,” artist Jessica Borchert said.

However, this is not the full extent of Borchert's art. Moving to New York to achieve her dream in art therapy, she has indulged herself in more than just body positivity but rather social justice work.

“My mom's a pastor and she's very open-minded,” Borchert said. “She's great, she's amazing — but we grew up in East Tennessee, so there were a lot of conservative viewpoints and a lot of hatred towards lesbians.”

Borchert has found her work to be an inclusive and expansive field helping diverse settings work towards greater emotional, physical and mental wellness.

“I've done work with fat positivity,” Borchert said. “I've done work with sexual assault and mental health. I'm really excited to feel like I can help other people with art because I love being in the studio and I love creating and I want other people to feel that same love and same self-expression.”

Borchert hopes her body of art not only inspires others but also gives them a new lens on their individual beauty. 

“I love creating and my art therapy degree that I'm working on has really helped me see how art can be healing to so many different kinds of people,” Borchert said. “So I think it's really important to make art that really invites all different kinds of bodies and invites people to see something that looks like me. And that's beautiful. So maybe I'm beautiful too.”