As a young girl, Kirsten Haglund did many of the same things other girls her age do: She took ballet lessons, flipped through fashion magazines, and dreamed of becoming Miss America. Unlike most girls, her dream came true.

Earlier this year, Haglund, representing the state of Michigan, took top honors in the storied competition, bearing the pageant winner’s hallmark crown and sash as a healthy 19-year-old woman. Just a few years ago, she might not have imagined any of this was possible. At 15, Haglund began struggling with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder marked by abnormally low body weight. Her heart rate plummeted to dangerous levels, she stopped menstruating, and her grip on life was slipping. Fortunately, Haglund’s family intervened and got her the medical help she needed to take control of the disease and regain her health.

Today, Haglund is using her role as Miss America to spread the word about eating-disorder awareness. It’s her social platform, and in April she lobbied on Capitol Hill to support the FREED Act (Federal Response to Eliminating Eating Disorders Act), hoping to gain funding to support research on eating disorders. “People need to know that this is an epidemic and that it’s a big problem,” she says. She wants adolescents to know that their value comes from within, that size and shape don’t matter anywhere as much as character and ability. And she wants parents to know that eating disorders are serious afflictions that can rob them of their children. “If you want your child to live,” she says, “you need to start treatment immediately.” It’s something she knows firsthand.

Why do you think so many young women today are susceptible to eating disorders?

It’s a combination of things. There is a genetic factor that predisposes some people. And there’s the diet culture that we have created in the past 30 years. There is a distorted relationship that Americans have with food and body image: “If you look a certain way, you will be successful”—and that’s just not the case.

What factors contributed to your own experiences with anorexia?

I was genetically predisposed, with a history of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder in my family. I’ve been a Type A personality my whole life, and have been in high-risk environments, like taking ballet since I was three years old. At 13 or 14, my body started changing. I was growing out of this long, lean body—becoming a woman, not a little girl—and I was scared of that. I started looking at fashion magazines and wanted to learn to diet.

What would you like for young women to understand about eating disorders?

What starts with a diet turns out to be something much more worrisome. It’s not something you can make better on your own. You need professional help, and that’s where parents and adults are so important. Eating disorders are deadly—they can kill. They are mental illnesses. In fact, the most deadly of all psychological illnesses is anorexia. Eating disorders can have a serious impact on a body: heart failure, kidney failure, inability to have children, osteoporosis. There are serious physical consequences—it’s not
a glamorous illness at all.

How should parents reach out to their children if they suspect the child may have an eating disorder?

Parents are reluctant to initiate communication. They don’t want to talk about it; there’s a stigma. And it is dirty, it is messy—but they need to initiate conversation immediately. It’s like cancer: The earlier something is detected, the sooner treatment can begin and the sooner the person can get better.

How should society as a whole work to improve body-image issues for young women?

We need to be really careful about the way we talk about our own bodies, especially as women. Even if you’re joking, the young woman may not be! Try not to judge other people based on shape or size. Try not to make people more than they are, just because they’re beautiful. I tell people to go on a media diet: If you don’t go on the computer or read that fashion magazine and you go for a walk and spend time with your family, you’ll get so much more out of life.

How do you hope your role as Miss America will promote healthy body images and eating-disorders awareness?

I hope to create media buzz, and make eating disorders something that’s okay to talk about. I want to help young women feel that they don’t need to look perfect to be successful. I will continue after my year as Miss America to help with advocacy on this issue and work with young women. I want them to love their bodies and feel comfortable in their own genes, not just their jeans. It’s not our bodies that define who we are.

If you think someone is struggling, she probably is. It doesn’t make her any less of a person—but it can. You have to be a broken record about it; you absolutely have to. Somebody’s life is on the line.