Emily Kwong

I had a great time.

If you like this episode and you want more space and moon joy in your life, check out our Space Camp series.

We'll put a link to that in our show notes.

It's really good.

This episode was produced by Brilly McCoy and Hannah Chin.

It was edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez.

Tyler Jones checked the facts.

Kweisi Lee was the audio engineer.

I'm Emily Kwong.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Maria Friedman is truly one of the coolest 17-year-olds I've ever met.

We started talking a year ago because she wanted advice on how to start a podcast.

We both developed an eating disorder in middle school.

Eating disorders among teenagers skyrocketed during the pandemic.

Maria's began during the COVID lockdown.

She was cut off from her peers and spending way more time watching TV.

And Maria, who was already struggling with perfectionism and anxiety, started to feel awful about herself.

Eating disorders among teenagers skyrocketed during the pandemic.

For Maria, two servings of pasta became one serving of pasta became no pasta at all.

She had intense exercise goals, all in an effort, in her mind, to become healthier.