Teen ballerina leads battle against eating disorders

Just over a year ago, Bailey Monarch was so malnourished that one day she found that she couldn't move her right foot.

"It felt like it was paralyzed," says the 17-year-old whose attempts to stay thin had turned into an eating disorder that threatened her life.

The petite teenager, who lives in Tarpon Springs, says she was able to hide it at first because she had been slim most of her life.

"I became terrified of eating and was not able to make rational decisions," says Monarch. "I was becoming emaciated and my hair was falling out."

She says she had started to struggle with it in junior high school. "It was my way of dealing with pressure and distress" says Monarch who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa in the summer of 2009.

Her mother, Cherie Monarch, says the family went through some tough, emotional and scary times during that year but Bailey pulled through.

"I am very proud of her and her determination to help others now," she says. "Facing this disease presents a difficult challenge but we were able to get treatment early."

With the help of her family and an intensive treatment program at the University of California - San Diego, the Eastlake High School student is on the road to recovery.

She went through the treatment program in December 2009.

By March of this year, Bailey was in Tallahassee as part of a group urging the state Legislature to pass the Coverage for Mental and Nervous Disorders Act.

This past fall, she went to Washington, D.C., to support a federal act that helps cover medical costs for treating people with eating disorders as well as funding for research and education.

Last week, this aspiring ballerina performed in "The Nutcracker" at the Largo Cultural Center.

And she has joined forces with a Tampa-based non-profit civic group to hold the area's first National Eating Disorder Walk on Feb. 19 to raise awareness.

"Bailey truly is a hometown hero because she is selfless, motivated, world-changing young lady," says Rachel Coleman, founder of High Hopes in High Heels, a social and civic group of women who take on charitable causes.

The volunteer group currently is helping six charities in the Tampa area and they agreed to take on one more.

Coleman says Monarch contacted the High Heels organization to help organize the event to be held in Al Lopez Park in Tampa.

Bailey Monarch says she wants to call attention to a disorder that affects thousands of young people. "It robbed me of junior high and I want others to know where and how they can get help," she says.

"People think that all you have to do is just eat more but it's more complicated than that," she says. "I couldn't eat and no one could force me to eat. It's a control issue. I couldn't control things outside of my life but I could control what I ate. The disease gets powerful hold on you."

Monarch says she has learned other ways to deal with stress and is eating healthy.

"My parents have been really wonderful because they have given me a lot of support," she says.

"It takes a lot of courage for a teenager to become a voice for eating disorders," says Coleman, adding that it is admirable that Bailey has remained a straight A-student through all this.

Monarch says there is no local chapter of the National Eating Disorders Association and she would to see one launched in the Tampa Bay area.

For more information on High Hopes in High Heels go to www.highhopesinhighheels.org.

The 5K walk will be around Al Lopez Park, north of Raymond James Stadium, Tampa. It will begin at 10 a.m. Feb. 19. Pre-registration costs $20 adults, $10 children. Day-of-registration is $25 adults, $10. Registration opens at 9 a.m., shelter 315.

To be a sponsor, to pre-register or for more information on the Tampa walk, visit neda.nationaleatingdisorders.org/TampaWalk or call (727) 992-0022.