Sacha Jones was sent off to ballet at the age of six on a recommendation from a doctor to help with her asthma - and her weight.
Ballet might have helped the asthma, but it didn't help how she felt about her weight.
By the time she was 16 she was a soloist with the Sydney City Ballet, but had been relying on laxatives and bulimia to keep herself slim.
When her ballet career came to an end, an unhealthy obsession with diet and body size continued.
Sacha had three children, obtained a PhD in political theory - but bulimia returned in her 40s.
She talks about this in her new book The Fatter Sex, an honest and insightful exploration of the pressures women face over their weight.
The book explores whether in trying to get away from the thin ideal, the body positive movement has pushed too far in the other direction.
Photo: Supplied: Umbilical Books
