When Mary Rose Bernal sought help for her eating disorder during her first year of college in Iowa, she said she felt like she had to educate her Iowa providers “who should have known better.”
Bernal, 21, originally from San Jose, California, and a spring 2019 graduate of Grinnell College, has struggled with an eating disorder since she was 15. When she was 16 and living in San Jose, she acquired a support team consisting of an eating disorder specialist, who worked out of an eating disorder clinic, a nutritionist and a therapist.