acknowledgments

Wow. I have been living in Eugene, Oregon. A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this project possible.

Thank you to Professor Slavka for the constant encouragement and thoughtful conversations throughout the year, and to Troy for your incredible intellectual guidance.

Thank you to Julie Newton and Autumn Schaefer, and to my undergraduate professors Dr. Sarkissian and Dr. Veksler for their support, inspiration, and recommendations that helped me enter this program.

Thank you to the MABR cohort for your constant support. Thank you to Hana for being my right hand throughout this project, from modeling to filming and everything in between.

Thank you to Camille and Maia for photography, to the distance runners who participated in interviews and focus groups, and to all the models and friends who contributed to this work.

Thank you to my mom for her endless support and for cheering me on across the country as I came to Oregon to follow my dreams.

It truly meant the world to bring in different people in one room and everyone’s energy flourished perfectly. It was so cute to hear everyone go around and ask each other, “how’d you meet Adalyn”.