My mental health film that went big by Tallulah

My mental health film that went big by Tallulah

As someone who is passionate about mental health, raising awareness and challenging stigmas and stereotypes, particularly when it comes to eating disorders, when I saw the Change4Life campaign launched in January, I was angered. I felt the campaign was misleading and could be potentially harmful with the messages it is sending out.

This was when I decided to use the medium of film to speak out about my views and challenge the campaign. In life in general, but especially when it comes to things I feel strongly about, I don’t like to do things half heartedly… Although I didn’t expect the film I created to make the impact it did…

I gave myself 4 days to make a film in response to the campaign. I had over 70 contributors involved, such as bloggers, authors, parents and those with experience of an eating disorder – anyone and everyone who wanted their voice to be heard.

After those 4 days (and not much sleep) it was time to get it seen.

In its first week, it reached over 5k views, I was interviewed by my regional newspaper, BBC Radio Norfolk, ITV Anglia and live on BBC Look East.

However… it wasn’t until the following week that the film took off. I was interviewed by a BBC News journalist who wrote an article about my film for the BBC website. Within hours that morning, this became their ‘top story’. It was totally unexpected!

The next day, the story featured in the London Evening Standard and the Metro newspapers, I was interviewed by Talk Radio and appeared live on Channel 5 News.

The film eventually got taken to Public Health England – which was my original aim! Regardless of that result, it was amazing to hear other people’s stories and opinions along the way, and to know I had created such an impact within the mental health community and even inspired others to tell their stories and campaign for what they believe in was the best feeling.

Thank you for reading!

Tallulah