Featuring Alicia McCarvell, Lucy Bishop, Elizabeth Bull, Martha Monroe, Sandra Mikulic, and more. This issue looks directly at the intersection of mental health, body image, and movement without reducing it to mindset hacks or surface-level fixes.

The voices in these pages are not speaking from theory alone. They bring lived experience, clinical expertise, and real-world insight into what it means to care for mental health in bodies that have been scrutinized, dismissed, or misunderstood.

People with larger bodies are chronically told to exercise BUT what is often overlooked is the bias many face and the impact this has on one’s mental health. The Mental Health Issue emerges as a more honest conversation. One that acknowledges the weight of stigma, the impact of exclusion, and the resilience required to keep showing up.
This is not about fixing individuals. It’s about understanding the systems, narratives, and expectations that shape mental health and movement and living well in the first place.

And it’s about creating a path forward that is grounded in respect, autonomy, and sustainable care. This is what it looks like when mental health is taken seriously, and people can live authentically as they are.