The Hidden Secrets of Eating Disorders

The Hidden Secrets of Eating Disorders
Martina Maya-Callen

The Hidden Secrets of Eating Disorders is an interdisciplinary art piece that merges installation, performance, and community engagement, creating an unfiltered confrontation with the realities of eating disorders. This visceral piece, which went viral and reached millions, shattered silence and sparked critical conversations worldwide – being featured in Yahoo News!, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, and numerous other outlets. I made this sculpture for National Eating Disorder Awareness Week and in collaboration with the National Eating Disorder Association.
At the heart of the installation stood an over 8-foot hand-crafted sculpture, meticulously sculpted by Martina Maya-Callen, embodying the isolation, entrapment, and pain of living with an eating disorder. The exterior of the closed sculpture became a canvas for the public—an interactive space where people were invited to inscribe messages of hope, resilience, and understanding.
But the performance went deeper—turning vulnerability into radical transparency. Before the public’s eyes, I shed my clothes, revealing a nude bodysuit. With raw honesty, I wrote the words I had carried within—the cruel, unrelenting thoughts that haunted my own body. And then, I gave the audience permission: they could write whatever they wanted on my skin. This piece was not just about visibility—it was about breaking open the hidden, the unspoken, the stigmatized. This piece was meant to be a vehicle for awareness, education, and healing.