Former Miss Arizona Stacey Kole has demonstrated the courage walk on a stage in front of a nation. On Wednesday night at the Carl Sandburg Auditorium, she used that same courage to tell more than 70 NIU students about her fight with an eating disorder.

During the hour-long speech, Kole described how she confronted and recovered from an eating disorder at the age of 17.

She began her speech by asking the audience to abandon the stereotypes associated with being in beauty pageants.

“The last thing I want you to think is that someone addressing serious topics like I am tonight has little more than the words ‘world peace’ at the top of her head,” she joked. “After you hear my story, hopefully I’ll be able to break the stereotypes.”

Kole said how in high school she was an honors student, on the homecoming court and a contestant in the Miss Teen pageant. She spent much of her time in singing and acting lessons, attending classes at the local college and performing volunteer work in the community.

Kole soon discovered that with all this work came benefits.

“Busy people get attention,” she said.

Kole craved the attention but thought that there was something missing. She believed she wasn’t attractive.

Trying to deal with her perception of herself, she came to a fateful decision.

“I wasn’t the prettiest girl in school, so I’m going to become the thinnest girl in school,” she said.

She began to only drink a diet shake and a eat a sandwich every day.

“But soon I started throwing up the shake and throwing the sandwich away,” Kole said.

This pattern of self-destruction soon came crashing down on her emotionally.

“I wanted to run away from my own body,” she said.

Kole found herself in a counselor’s office where the future beauty queen was diagnosed “an extreme perfectionist developing an eating disorder.”

The audience sat quietly and listened as she discussed the causes of bulimia and anorexia and how it affects one out of three women on campus.

“One reason is the cultural pressures,” Kole said. “However there is a reason that doesn’t get discussed and I’ll call it ‘emotional vulnerability.’”

Kole explained that the disorder could be the result of a life-altering event, or a build-up of smaller ones.

Diagnosing is easier than confronting it, she said.

“I wish I had a magic answer,” Kole said.

The best way to address the problem, as a friend of someone with an eating disorder, is to educate yourself and talk to your friend, she said.

“You don’t want to be judgmental,” Kole said. “You can try to discuss how it affects you, or talk to her about the feelings you both are confronting.”

Kole also said to have a support group in place for when the person is ready to deal with the problem.

“Ninety-two percent welcome it, so don’t give up on your friends,” she said.

Kole admitted that counseling was a very important part of her recovery, but most important to her was “developing a spiritual side of life.”

“The problem might not be about empty stomachs, but empty hearts,” she said.

Kole will speak again at 9 p.m. today at Faraday Hall, Room 143. Campus Crusade for Christ is sponsoring the event.