How The Circus Helped One Woman Recover From An Eating Disorder

Before finding her true calling as a professional aerialist, Kayla Dyches struggled for years with anorexia. She developed the disorder in her teens and it continued into her 20s. At her lowest weight, she was only 90 pounds. But, she explains in a new video for Great Big Story, that's when she discovered a life-saving passion. "I would definitely still be starving myself if I had not found circus arts," she says in the video. "It changed my life because I knew that if I wanted to do it, I needed to grow stronger." She's spent eight years building a healthier relationship with food — and her body. "I had fallen in love with aerial so much so that I was willing to put food in my mouth and grow some muscle so I can get in the air and keep up with all my classmates," says Dyches. Now when she looks in the mirror and feels "small," she says she knows that's not true — she can climb 200 feet straight up into the air. And, she says, "I'm capable of so much more." Check out the full video above to hear her story in her own words — and to see her in action.