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Writing a blog post for Beat

Thank you for your interest in writing for our blog.

We’re so grateful for your help. Personal stories can mean so much to others in their recovery journey, helping to remove the stigma and loneliness that people often feel when they’re struggling with an eating disorder.

Writing your blog

Who can write a blog?

We’d love to hear from anyone who’s been affected by an eating disorder – that could be yours, or you might have supported someone else.

There’s a misconception that eating disorders only affect certain groups of people. But we know that eating disorders can affect anyone. In fact, systemic marginalisation or a less well-known eating disorder presentation can have an impact on the development, diagnosis and treatment of someone’s eating disorder.

So we especially encourage you to get in touch if you’ve experienced less represented types of eating disorders, such as BED or ARFID, or if you’re:

What should I write about?

We want our blog to be a positive space, encouraging recovery, helping people feel less alone, and tackling stigma and misunderstanding. We encourage you to write what’s important to you, but remember you’re writing for an audience and think about what would be helpful for them to hear, too.

What should I avoid?

Some things can be triggering to those suffering. Please avoid mentioning:

Please also avoid graphic or in-depth descriptions of other things readers may find distressing, such as self-harm.

Why might you not publish a blog?

If your blog contains minor mentions of the above things, we’ll remove them, but we can’t publish blogs if it has lots of triggering content or we don’t feel it will help readers. We’re also unlikely to publish your blog if it’s much shorter or longer than the suggested word count (below).

How long should my blog be?

Your blog post should be between 500 – 1000 words. If your blog is much longer than this, you could think about breaking it up into multiple blogs.

Can I write a blog for a particular day/event?

If you’d like your blog posted for a particular date, please send it as far in advance as you can, with a clear document title (e.g. “Blog for New Year”). We’ll do our best to publish it for the time you’ve asked, but can’t guarantee it, especially at busy times.

Can you share something I’ve already posted somewhere else?

We ask that everything you send is original.

I’ve sent a blog before – can I send another one?

We’re happy to publish more than one blog from one person, but won’t publish one writer’s blogs back to back, and don’t have regular “guest spots”.

Submitting your blog

What should I send?

Please send your blog, including your preferred title, as a Word or PDF document, using the form below. We might not be able to open attachments in other formats. You can include the name you’d like us to publish the blog under, and anything else you’d like us to know in the same document.

If you’re including pictures, these should be landscape rather than portrait. Please attach them as high-quality JPGs or PNGs of at least 1200px by x 630px/10cm x 5cm.

Do I have to include a picture?

You don’t have to. But remember you don’t have to use a picture of yourself – you could use a picture that is meaningful in some other way. If the picture isn’t yours, please check you’re allowed to use it.

Certain images can be triggering. If you’re not sure about a picture, let us know.

Can I stay anonymous?

Yes – we usually post using your first name, but can identify you as “anonymous” or use a different name.

Will you edit my blog?

We read all blogs and proofread for spelling, grammar, and general readability. We may make minor edits if there are issues with our guidelines, e.g. removing mentions of specific weights. If we’d like to publish your blog but feel we’ll need to change a lot first, we’ll get in touch to talk about this with you.

Why haven’t I heard back about my blog?

We’re really grateful to everyone who sends blogs. However, we receive a lot of submissions, and as a small and busy team we unfortunately don’t have capacity to respond to everybody. There may also be longer delays in responding around busy times, like Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Can you take my blog down?

We know writing about your experiences is very personal and if you’re not comfortable to have your blog online anymore, we can take it down or make it anonymous. Deleted blogs might take time to clear from search engine results and may have already been shared on social media – unfortunately we’re not able to do anything about this.

If you have any other questions, please email blogs@beateatingdisorders.org.uk.

Read through our writing guidelines? Submit your blog below.