Raymi the Minx Doesn’t Want To Be Your Trigger
Popular blogger Lauren lives in Toronto and is often better known as Raymi the Minx. Since 2000, she’s been blogging several times a day with a raw and sarcastic wit that is hard to find in twenty-somethings. She also contributes articles on Rocketpack. In 2005, Raymi self-published Marketable Depression, chronicling her treatment and misadventures through bipolar disorder – a book widely reviewed (even I did!) in the blogsphere.
On her site, she often posts photos of “forbidden” food and talks of weight loss strategies. She is open about days when she feels depressed, angry and fat, to the point of brutal honesty sometimes – a fresh take from the piteous posts that you find on so many blogs that talk of depression. Here is Lauren’s response to Eating Disorder Talk’s questions:
Q. Why did you start blogging and why continue it?
A. Cos [sic] I loved writing and I loved attention. And I still do.
Q. Are you currently on a diet?
A. My own fucked up one, yes.
Q. To be as close to perfect as you think is attainable, how much weight would you need to lose? (how much have you lost already?)
A. I’ve lost twenty pounds, I think I need fifteen more off, then I’m good. But then a monkey in my brain will push it for five more; the skinnier you get, the crazier you are – so you have to be careful.
Q. Feel brave enough to give out your stats?
A. 5’8 and I am not revealing my weight until I am at my “target” so everyone’s mind will be blown. People think I am less than I am cos [sic] they forget to consider my height.
Q. Do you ever worry about being a trigger for girls who read your blog – your confidence, food descriptions and talk of losing weight?
A. I’ve received emails from nine year olds saying they want to be me and I kinda laugh it off to be in denial about how crazy that is. When the 13 yr olds write me, I post it and say this is scary. I have in the past written a post saying I don’t want your daughters to be like me, in terms of drinking or whatever. And to late 20-30 yr olds, like, “Haha look how fucking desperate and crazy I am?” They can get their warped body images from Shape and Maxim magazine anyway.
Q. Why do you put so many (often very rich) food pictures on your blog while also writing about dieting?
A. The rich foods that are taken at restaurants are usually what Fil orders and it’s to assuage my desire and yearning to eat it, it’s also blog content to drive people bananas. When I have a craving for hamburgers I search out 30 pictures on Google of the greasiest, cheesiest ones I can find cos [sic] I know I won’t go out and get one.
Q. What’s the difference between an extreme diet and an eating disorder?
A. Eating disorder is Tracey Gold from Growing Pains making the show end cos [sic] she was skeletor, and then she did that made for tv movie about a girl with anorexia. Extreme diet is people in Hollywood jogging in the heat? Or people who talk about their diets all the time.
Q. Do you now have, or have you ever had an eating disorder?
A. Well I guess so, I’m binge-eating I think, starve myself, then eat once a day and I constantly think about my body. At nite [sic] I think about being skinnier and posing in outfits; fuck world peace, I need to look like Kate Moss.
Q. What disorders (psychological) have you been diagnosed with?
A. Bipolar mood disorder, depression.
Q. How do you really feel about the usual spots that women hate on themselves?
A. I hate my upper arms the most and all my fat resides in my middle area. Women either have their fat sit above or below waist. Below, have cankles and big asses; like me, have skinnier legs but bigger middles. I think I’d be pretty depressed if I had cankles. I know I would be.
Q. Have you ever consciously wanted an eating disorder?
A. No, I think people who have severe ones are mentally ill. I have other shit in my life to focus on other than DYING or being sent away to one of those anorexic safe homes.
Q. Have you closely known anyone who has had one?
A. My friend. She barf[s] up her food but I have never seen her, so it’s like it doesn’t happen. Unfortunately, these days it’s kinda [sic] like, “whatevs [sic]. No one cares because skinny is SO in, like never before, so it’s almost encouraged?”
Q. If you knew someone close to you was in crisis with their eating disorder, what would you do?
A. Tell them if they don’t get help I am telling their mom and talk shit about them on my blog, and grab their wrists firmly and give their head a shake. I can be pretty aggressive. Oh, drunk crying works too: say a bunch of manipulative, sappy shit, then Fil steps in and gives his intelligent, makes sense Fil speech and off they go to help.
Q. If you could go on a strict vegan diet and drop weight faster than you could put it back on, would you?
A. Based on principal, no. Aside from that, I do not have the willpower, nor desire. I enjoy life too much. I mean, I like to enjoy my life while I’m living it, not suffer, eating twigs and leaves.
Q. Name five celebrities you suspect.
A. That one Olsen twin, Angelina Jolie, Posh Spice, Nicole Richie, Hilary Duff.
Q. How long did it take you to write the “How I lost 20lbs” post?
A. I don’t keep track of time when I blog, I am like, in the zone. I think altogether an hour when you factor in editing and fine-tuning but I write pretty manically off the top of my head so…
edited for grammatical errors.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:33 am
[...] 29th, 2007 · No Comments i interviewed raymi at my other site. this is the first one, part of an ongoing project to get real-life answers from fellow bloggers out in the limelight. if [...]
November 30th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
[...] have a celebrity from the most newly-popular media medium, the blogosphere, give her comments, too? This woman has been interviewed here before, she’s been blogging for eight years, she’s ranked barely over 25,000 on [...]