![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Kelsie-Forbush.jpg\")
In 2014, her journey brought her to KU. Today, she is professor of clinical child psychology and senior scientist at the Life Span Institute, where she is director of the new Center for the Advancement of Research on Eating Behaviors (CARE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some ways, Guenther\u2019s story typifies the misunderstanding around eating disorders that persists today: namely, the assumptions that behavioral conditions such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are rare (and rarely fatal), and that they mainly affect young white women starving for a waifish figure. However, the truth about eating disorders is much more complex and diverse. The National Institute of Mental Health defines eating disorders as severe disturbances in a person\u2019s eating behaviors. Although many people may be concerned about their health, weight or appearance on occasion, some become fixated or obsessed with weight loss, body weight or shape, and controlling food intake. Others may struggle with binge eating, marked by episodes of overeating and a sense of losing control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anorexia and bulimia are fairly well known, but the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)\u2014the standard reference used by clinicians to diagnose mental health conditions\u2014recognizes six additional categories that are less familiar. These include binge eating disorder, avoidant or restrictive food intake disorder, pica, rumination, and other specified feeding and eating disorders (such as purging disorder, night eating syndrome, atypical anorexia nervosa, subthreshold bulimia nervosa and orthorexia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cother specified\u201d category can account for nearly half of all cases. Further illustrating the challenges of identification, eating disorders are known to manifest very differently across varied cultures, gender identities and ages. Lack of access to treatment, from rural areas to the military, compounds the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is partly why, as Forbush explains, recent research on the prevalence of eating disorders suggests cases are undercounted. Far from rare, these conditions may be as common as depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On this complex foundation, Forbush and a team of researchers aim to build scientifically valid, effective\u2014and inclusive\u2014ways to identify and treat eating disorders at CARE, which in 2024 became one of nine dedicated research centers at the Life Span Institute. A key goal is to expand access to effective treatment no matter where people are, including on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne thing that breaks my heart is when I have a student who says, \u2018I\u2019ve been to treatment four times,\u2019\u201d Forbush says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has also seen students who\u2019ve been in treatment since their preteen years who, after receiving treatment developed at CARE, show improvement in less time than it takes to complete a single semester of classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis shouldn\u2019t be what happened to them,\u201d Forbush says. \u201cThey lost 10 years for this, and they can\u2019t get that time back. We\u2019ve got to bridge that gap so that people can live high-quality lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standards and stigmas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Eating disorders often peak in early adulthood\u2014the age many people start college or join the military. Anxiety and trauma often associated with dramatic life changes such as these can worsen eating disorders. When food access becomes unpredictable, research shows, disordered behaviors around diet and extreme exercise can feel like a way to regain control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of reasons why the military environment is kind of the \u2018perfect storm\u2019 for developing an eating disorder,\u201d Forbush says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Service members are required to make weight twice a year, and weigh-ins are public. Intentional dehydration and extreme use of laxatives may become normalized when exceeding standards by even half a pound can trigger an email to the whole command. Failing isn\u2019t just humiliating\u2014it limits eligibility for orders, impacts promotions and can even end careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also the stigma that you\u2019re the weakest link and that you can\u2019t keep up or be a part of the team,\u201d says Leah Stiles, a retired senior chief petty officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stiles reached out to Forbush in her post-military role as CEO of Sea Waves, a nonprofit she founded to raise awareness of the problem of eating disorders in the military. For Stiles, it\u2019s personal. So much so, she\u2019s given it a name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI call it Lucifer. Lucifer living with us. It\u2019s a roommate you just don\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stiles developed an eating disorder coping with a turbulent childhood. She thought she\u2019d left it behind when she joined the U.S. Navy, but it resurfaced as she struggled to manage the stress of deployment, stay within unforgiving weight limits and prove that she belonged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the military, overwork was rewarded. Her disorder adapted to fit the system, accompanying her through a 20-year career. At one point, she was purging more than five times a day. She ruptured her esophagus. As her body broke, she kept passing inspections because, from the outside, she looked fine: Stiles wasn\u2019t underweight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually, the three highest-ranking officers on her ship confronted Stiles during a deployment. They had her medevaced to Naval Station Norfolk, the world\u2019s largest naval base. When she arrived, she learned what many people with eating disorders have experienced: Few medical providers have specific training to treat them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I got there, there was not one single eating disorder-informed provider in the entire hospital,\u201d Stiles recalls. \u201cNobody had gotten more than 15 minutes of formal eating disorder education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Forbush and a 2019 Government Accountability Office study found that military screening methods fail to identify service members with eating disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe current way of screening for eating disorders within the military is to ask potential service members if they have ever had an eating disorder,\u201d Forbush says. \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a series of research grants, Forbush has helped define new ways to identify eating disorders, by looking first to the experiences of veterans and, now, among active-duty military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She led research to develop the Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (EPSI), which improved the narrow focus of existing assessment tools. Launched in 2013, the 45-item questionnaire, tested among more than 30,000 people, assesses eating disorders among a wide range of ages, genders, body shapes, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses and cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Building on her work on EPSI, Forbush created another screening mechanism, the Brief Assessment of Stress and Eating (BASE), 10 questions that identify eating disorders among veterans as well as other populations, such as college students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the heels of that success, Forbush won a $4.2 million Department of Defense grant in 2023 to address eating disorders among active-duty military by refining and scaling her screening tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To understand the need for more accurate screening tools in the military, where men outnumber women, one must understand the misconceptions about these conditions, says Samiya Rasheed, c\u201923, c\u201923, a project coordinator at CARE who oversees veterans and military studies with BASE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe biggest misconception about eating disorders is generally just around who can have an eating disorder\u2014which is anyone,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the rates of eating disorders are higher among women, men are less likely to receive treatment. That\u2019s why the mortality rate for men is more than double that of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInevitably, when we ask (the mostly male service members) if they have ever talked about eating disorders within a military context, I have never gotten another answer but, \u2018That\u2019s not really something we talk about, even if we do talk about mental health generally,\u2019\u201d Rasheed says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Screenings are critical because they are the first step toward treatment, a tool that can be used broadly to identify potential health risks before assessing individuals in more comprehensive evaluations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou want something brief and easy to give alongside depression screenings and anxiety screenings, right?\u201d Forbush explains. \u201cThink of the questions you\u2019re asked when you go to a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it isn\u2019t enough to ask more questions; clinicians need to ask the right questions. Failure to do so means many people remain trapped, not only putting their health at risk, but also significantly impacting their quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re really learning,\u201d says Anjali Sharma, c\u201921, a graduate research assistant at CARE, \u201cthat eating disorders don\u2019t discriminate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CARE\u2019s group of two dozen clinicians, researchers and students are actively collaborating\u2014and encouraging one another\u2014to better understand how disordered eating develops across many different lived experiences and cultural contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team environment is something Forbush has worked to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time thinking about best practices for hiring people, maintaining good work-life balance, and creating a sense of community and cohesion,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s something I really strive for, and something I enjoy \u2026 because I get to create a culture that I want to be a part of. That does take work to cultivate and maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After her ballet career ended, Forbush found her next steps with encouragement from an undergraduate sociology professor. He had asked her to stay after class to discuss a paper on eating disorders she had written for her final project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was anxious that he was going to criticize her work, but he surprised her by instead suggesting she consider a career as a researcher. His words planted an idea that kept coming back to her as she went on to earn her PhD. Now, she hopes to inspire other students in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSimple things that we can do as a professor, such as small encouragements,\u201d she says, \u201ccan have such a big impact on people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entire CARE team\u2014undergrads and graduate students, project managers and center leaders\u2014meets weekly during the academic year, packing a conference room in the Dole Human Development Center to share ideas for information dissemination, discuss avenues of research, and brainstorm ways to connect to communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe best research, to me, is developed with communities, not on communities,\u201d Forbush says. \u201cSo really trying to partner with various groups in the area and nationally is one of our initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This culture of mentorship, inclusion and community-engaged research is reflected in the work of Sarah Johnson-Munguia, g\u201921, a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the center. Her research explores how culture shapes relationships with food and body image, a key step in improving screening and treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People with an eating disorder don\u2019t necessarily desire the thinnest body possible. Hispanic women she interviewed often preferred thin waists but larger hips and chests. Similarly, masculine ideals may call for low body fat but large biceps and defined, six-pack abs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These ideals of physical appearance, self-control and morality around food are passed down in both subtle and explicit ways. They serve as powerful sources of connection, but, paradoxically, can also be sources of division, isolating people from the communities that shaped them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think about how ingrained food is in our culture, and how it\u2019s such a connecting force to other people,\u201d Johnson-Munguia says. \u201cSo, you often lose that connection as you get deeper into an eating disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The social pressures around food can lead people with eating disorders to avoid spending time with friends and family, wary of comments that they are eating too much or not enough. They may fear losing control of their eating, or they may be so busy with the rituals surrounding their disorder that they just don\u2019t have time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou lose your connection to the outer world, and the things that actually matter to you as a person and your values. That can feel really isolating and hard to deal with,\u201d Johnson-Munguia says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While eating disorders look different across cultures and genders, there are differences in how these behaviors impact people across identities as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anjali Sharma, the project coordinator, focuses much of her research on eating disorders across the gender spectrum. There\u2019s not a lot of data on how to assess or treat eating disorders in gender-diverse people. But science is starting to catch up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor transgender individuals or gender-nonconforming individuals, we see there is this body ideal of being androgynous,\u201d Sharma says. \u201cSo, of course, secondary sex characteristics, such as breasts or having hips, can be very dysphoric and can be very triggering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trans individuals experiencing gender dysphoria may try to control their body by restricting food, purging or exercising excessively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the National Eating Disorders Association, transgender or nonbinary people are four times more likely than cisgender peers to have an eating disorder, and LGBTQIA people experience higher rates and more severe symptoms of eating disorders on entering treatment, compared with individuals who are heterosexual or cisgender. Assessments and treatment programs often ignore these facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of our treatments and a lot of our assessments and all of that have been made for cisgender individuals,\u201d Sharma says. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve found that common eating disorder questionnaires perform quite differently, to where it doesn\u2019t detect eating disorder problems as well in transgender and gender-diverse individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matty Spragens grew up being told that the size of their body must be strictly controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spragens, whose experience typifies the lifelong challenges eating disorders pose, says their mother began embracing diet culture and projecting it in the 1970s, when Spragens was a child. It was the era when Robert Atkins penned his Diet Revolution books and celebrity fruit fasts touted shedding pounds fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By kindergarten, Spragens had been drawn in as well. \u201cI was told from a very young age, like the age of 5, that I had inherited \u2018fat genes.\u2019\u201d At 6, Spragens was put on the first of many diets. The experience was taxing, but Spragens, c\u201996, didn\u2019t see an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI lived my entire life just thinking that life sucked,\u201d Spragens says. \u201cThat was the way life was. You just had a bad relationship with food and body, and all of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spragens came out as queer in 1991 and as trans in 2019. Their eating disorder has looked different over time, but often the behavior associated with it was praised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was always like, \u2018Oh, good job. You lost all this weight,\u2019 you know? \u2018You look great. Keep doing what you\u2019re doing,\u2019\u201d Spragens says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 14, they were skipping lunch, going to basketball practice after school and eating salad for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI lost a ton of weight, and everybody was just so proud of me, because I had these \u2018fat genes\u2019 that I had to fight. And I was doing it. I was fighting it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spragens didn\u2019t recognize they had an eating disorder until after a dietitian expressed concerns in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Always athletic, Spragens had taken up weightlifting in their 40s. They used a nutrition coach to stay competitive\u2014and lean\u2014in the weight-class sport. The coach had Spragens log every ounce of food and target specific percentages of protein, carbs and fat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was eating 1,200 calories a day and exercising every day. And like, doing ridiculous things,\u201d Spragens remembers. This included weighing daily, taking photos and reporting all details to the coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spragens remembers questioning others in an online weightlifting forum about whether it was normal to never stop thinking about food. No one ever brought up the topic of eating disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, Spragens knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was miserable,\u201d Spragens says. \u201cMiserable. And I just, I woke up one day and I was like, \u2018I know I need to stop working with this guy.\u2019 And also, \u2018I don\u2019t know how to feed myself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s when they went to the dietitian to find advice on a better diet\u2014maybe paleo? Instead, \u201cWithin about 20 minutes of talking to me, they said, \u2018Um, you\u2019ve got a problem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spragens didn\u2019t enter treatment right away, but they soon realized managing an eating disorder wasn\u2019t something they could do on their own. A lifetime of rituals refused to disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you have run under the radar for so long, the longer you have your eating disorder, the harder it is to reset your mind frame,\u201d Spragens says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They entered residential treatment for eating disorders. While beneficial, the program wasn\u2019t set up to support someone like them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt really catered to young people who are worried about school and life decisions for the future,\u201d Spragens says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really take into account people who have children and are in various other decades of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The community providers also lacked knowledge about gender-affirming care in the context of eating disorders, according to Spragens, who set about educating the nursing staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had to really fight to have my pronouns respected,\u201d Spragens recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experience was beneficial, but health insurance limited the length of the stay. Overall, Spragens needed about 10 in-patient stays over the next six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because eating disorders are considered a specialized field in psychology, providers have limited training in diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople are just truly slipping through the cracks, and there\u2019s not enough providers to keep up with demand for services,\u201d Forbush explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are signs this is changing. Forbush recently co-wrote a textbook on abnormal psychology. The other authors, aware of the need for more information on the topic, were eager to include a scientist who specializes in eating disorders in their newest edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the beginning of their book, eating disorders weren\u2019t in there at all. Then it was a section in the childhood chapter,\u201d Forbush says. \u201cNow it\u2019s its own chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From 40% to 60% of eating disorders can be classified as \u201cother specified,\u201d Forbush says, which means a person has symptoms that cause clinically significant distress or impairment but do not meet the full criteria for an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until recently, large epidemiological studies of psychiatric disorders excluded this \u201cother specified\u201d category, which led to eating disorders being underestimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you exclude the most common eating disorder, you have a distorted idea of the scope and impact of eating disorders,\u201d Forbush says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She believes eating disorders should be as well understood by therapists as common health problems are understood by primary care doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf your primary care physician isn\u2019t familiar with Type 2 diabetes,\u201d Forbush explains, \u201cthat\u2019s not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, eating disorders that go unrecognized also go untreated\u2014contributing to an annual $64.7 billion economic hit from lost productivity and well-being, U.S. health system costs, and related expenses. Despite this, the National Institutes of Health funds eating disorder research at a rate of about 73 cents per person with a disorder, Forbush notes. NIH invests $58.65 per person with autism spectrum disorder and $86.97 per person with schizophrenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angeline Bottera, associate director of CARE, says clinicians can be uncomfortable or unfamiliar with treating eating disorders. Few providers receive training specifically to treat eating disorders, limiting access to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although providers refer individuals to specialists, there are not enough specialists to meet patient needs. As a result, people struggle to find treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bottera completed her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Wyoming, where she observed the provider shortage firsthand. If people were unable to access treatment at the university, there were no other options in-state. People drove more than two hours to Denver for treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In West Virgina for her residency, she saw much the same thing, with patients possibly driving hours for outpatient treatment\u2014a problem that extends across much of rural Kansas as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bottera was struck by the magnitude of the shortfall, and the need to develop solutions that address the gaps in treatment. She says CARE is at the forefront of disseminating treatment options to nonspecialty providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat means that our work, which already involves KU students and veterans in the state, has the potential to help Kansans statewide who are in rural and isolated communities. It\u2019s a global impact that is being developed here at KU that can meet those needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To address gaps in treatment options, CARE is developing app-based tools that pair clinicians with resources to improve eating disorder treatment. The apps provide patients with lessons and skills for recovery, along with tools to track their progress. Therapists can monitor clients\u2019 progress through the platforms, supporting wellness and sustained recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two ongoing projects are the Smart Technology for Anorexia Nervosa Recovery (STAR) app, which supports clinicians in helping patients with anorexia nervosa maintain recovery and prevent relapse into higher levels of care, and the BEST-U (Building Healthy Eating & Self-Esteem Together for University Students) app. Forbush this year received a $715,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand BEST-U\u2019s 11-week program to reach more students and fund training for Watkins Health Center providers to serve as coaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people with eating disorders are not underweight, and screening measures aren\u2019t capturing these types of eating disorders very well. Sometimes students volunteer thinking they\u2019ll be part of a control group but realize throughout the course of answering questions that they have an unhealthy relationship with food and body image that should be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do think sometimes there might be certain aspects of eating problems that can be normalized in our society,\u201d Forbush says. \u201cIt\u2019s sometimes hard to know where that line is between watching your diet, worrying about your body, wanting to be fit\u2014and when it becomes problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While research and study are the methods, Forbush says, helping people is the ultimate goal of the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to bridge that gap between what happens in traditional practice and what happens in our research labs. It cannot be separate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When eating disorders are treated successfully, people have more time to focus on friends, relationships, hobbies, school, work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEating disorders take up a lot of mental real estate,\u201d Forbush says. \u201cWhen a person gets treatment, it opens up so many different aspects of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spragens still feels the frustration of living with an eating disorder for decades. While they are in a good place today, the work to stay healthy doesn\u2019t end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wish,\u201d Spragens says, before pausing to reflect. \u201cI wish a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back, Spragens wishes they\u2019d been able to access care when they were 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt a time when I should have really gotten some help, people were just so amazed at how disciplined I was and how good I looked,\u201d Spragens says. \u201cI think my life could look a lot different than it does now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is part of what has driven Spragens, at 51, to pursue a master\u2019s degree in social work so they can help others with eating disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spragens strives to remember how far they\u2019ve come. Even small moments feel big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They can take their child out for ice cream. They can focus better on work and are able to realize when they\u2019re pushing too hard. They\u2019ve gotten into painting. And they feel pride in who they are and being part of a queer community. When Spragens applied to adopt a rescue dog, friend after friend provided references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard when you\u2019re just looking forward and you\u2019re like, \u2018I\u2019m just never going to get there, I\u2019m never going to get there, I\u2019m never going to get there.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut yet, look at all the things that have happened and changed in my life,\u201d Spragens says. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for people to remember those things about their own experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina Knott, a KU graduate student in digital integrated marketing, is a communications specialist at the Life Span Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n KU\u2019s new Center for the Advancement of Research on Eating Behaviors is changing the way we talk about eating disorders\u2014and helping a broader range of patients get the treatment they need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-university","tag-life-span-institute"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Eating-disorder-research-KU.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA culture of collaboration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Center-for-the-Advancement-of-Research-on-Eating-Behaviors.jpg\")
A lifetime of rituals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Research gains boost treatment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Angeline-Bottera.jpg\")
Breaking free<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nIllustration by Barry Fitzgerald
Photos by Drew Rosdahl<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"