At Peace

Mental health advocate and psychologist Stephanie Ng's own battle with body image issues compelled her to give support and a voice to young people in Hong Kong who are going through the same struggles

- Salomé Grouard

"Have you ever had something to say, but no words with which to say it?" asked Stephanie Ng at her TedX Talk at the University of Hong Kong in February 2023.

It is a question that encapsulates Ng's struggles and recovery from an eating disorder as a teen in Hong Kong-at a time when discussions around body image and mental health were almost non-existent in the city.

Ng, whose current PhD research is examining how storytelling shapes the understanding of mental health in the Hong Kong context, wants to give the city's teenagers the vocabulary they need, in English or Cantonese, to express their feelings and struggles. "Many of us in Hong Kong find it difficult to talk about body image topics, not only because we don't have the specific words about them that are easily accessible to us, but also because it can feel uncomfortable or unacceptable to bring these topics into everyday conversations," she says.