Steph Claire Smith reveals how harrowing eating disorder inspired her hugely successful business empire: ‘I made myself sick out of disgust and disappointment in myself’

Steph Claire Smith has revealed how her past eating disorder inspired her hugely successful business, Keep it Cleaner.

Steph, who owns the health empire with her business partner Laura Henshaw, said she began developing an unhealthy relationship with food during her career as a full-time model a decade ago.

In the lengthy note written to accompany a TikTok video, Steph, now 29, said she “constantly fell into the comparison trap” between other female models and the beauty standards set in the industry.

“My entire worth was attributed to the way I looked. There wasn’t a second in the day that I wasn’t thinking ahead about food, limiting myself to foods I loved, and overeating everything I allowed myself to eat,” the mother of one said.

She added that she often made herself sick or became upset “out of disgust and disappointment” at falling into the vicious cycle.

Steph explained that she only decided to embark on a career path towards health and body positivity when she became friends with her current business partner Henshaw, who had gone through a similar experience.

‘In 2015 we had around 500,000 followers on Instagram. It was through connecting with this online community that we knew we were not alone in our struggles and that we wanted to do something about it,” she continued.

“It started with a recipe ebook, then a subscription blog, published a hard copy book, then launched a web program, then a grocery label, and in 2018 we launched the Kic app.”

The Keep it Cleaner (KIC) app is a health-based app that offers nutritious recipes, exercise programs, and mindful activities like meditation.

Steph said that with the help of Henshaw and the ‘incredible experts’ of the KIC team, they have helped ‘hundreds of thousands of people around the world change their relationship with wellbeing and themselves for the better’.

She continued her candid post by moving on with her family life.

Steph and her husband Josh Miller welcomed son Harvey in 2021.

“I’m the wife of a man I’ve been in love with since I was 12, I’ve been dating for over a decade and married for four,” she said, adding that her journey through motherhood was “without” . undoubtedly the most challenging yet best thing that could ever happen,” she said.

The Melbourne-based entrepreneur concluded her post by thanking her longtime fans and followers for their continued support.

Steph, who is known for her stunning looks and enviable physique, now radiates good health.

It’s not the first time she’s opened up about a bad relationship with her body.

In 2018, she shared a before and after photo showing herself as a slim 19-year-old next to one of her current self.

“This before photo is from when I was 19, 10kg lighter than I am now,” she captioned a photo of her slim body.

“It’s crazy how much our bodies can change depending on our age and lifestyle,” she captioned her current image.

Steph shared the post as a way to talk about her experiences as a then-19-year-old model who felt pressured to look a certain way to get work.

“At this age, I was taking full advantage of my fast metabolism, eating a lot of junk food and barely exercising,” she said.

‘It was the year I went to America to get signed, the year BEFORE I fell into restrictive eating and binge eating and hating my body because I wasn’t skinny enough…’.

She said recovering from disordered thinking about herself meant finding a way to accept that her body was changing over time.

“The change in my body was scary at first… my measurements went up, stretch marks and cellulite appeared,” she wrote.

Henshaw has also spoken about her experience with body dysmorphia early in her career.

Body dysmorphia as a mental illness is characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with perceived flaws or flaws in one’s physical appearance, while those flaws are unnoticeable to others or are very minor.

People with BD affect approximately two percent of the population and usually have a strong focus on the skin, hair or face. Nevertheless, it can include any aspect of physical appearance.

“Five years ago I was on extreme diets, obsessed with the models I followed on social media and had a really bad relationship with food, but now I have such a different approach,” the 25-year-old told Body and soul.

“I care about eating well and exercising well, and I don’t really care how many calories I put on the scale or how many calories I eat.”