Know thy bracelets: red is pro-ana; blue is pro-mia
May 9, 2008 by angelique
Filed under Women's Health
Your daughter loves wearing her blue or red beaded bracelet. Maybe it even has a dragonfly on it or what is known as a “dragonfly” clasp.
Now, her piece of fashion wear could be completely innocent. Or it could be a sign that she’s telling the world she’s pro-ana (red beads) or pro-mia (blue beads).
I blogged briefly about this topic a couple of days ago, but I wanted to mention it again because I think it’s incredibly important for people everywhere to know the little “signals” that folks in the pro-ana and pro-mia movements send one another.
Again, I’m in no way suggesting that a beaded bracelet tells the whole story. (I think I might have a blue beaded one somewhere around the house, and I’m anything but pro-mia.) However, it could be a clue if you’re seeing other signs of a possible eating disorder in your child, friend or student.
As a side note, I’ve seriously been considering creating a red beaded one and wearing it openly to see if anyone approaches me. Hm. I might have to try that.
IMAGES: Newscom
Actually, red is the color for anorexia awareness, not pro-ana. The dragonfly isn’t always a symbol of pro-ana always, but more likely pro-ana than just a red bracelet. Just for the information. And blue bracelets are also the color for depression awareness… and other awareness symbols as well… don’t jump the gun. seriously.
Rae:
You’re right — the colors can mean different things to different groups. But I still think it’s important for parents to understand that proana is a definite culture unto itself.
Like you, I don’t want anyone to jump to conclusions; but awareness can’t hurt!
Thanks for popping in!
Actually… purple is pro-mia, not blue.
Amberleigh:
(Love your name!)
You know, I’ve seen both now on the various pro-ana and pro-mia websites. Maybe it’s either, or perhaps it’s changed to purple since that’s a more feminine, intense color than blue?
Greetings from one of the reviled pro-ana website visitors… just so you know, anorexia is not the type of trendy affliction it’s made out to be. It’s a serious addiction and a disease. It’s very deadly and hard to recover from… please reconsider before your point the finger and call us disgusting.
I have recently read that red=pro ana, purple=bulimia and black and blue=self injury. That was in the Detroit News, and reportedly on the well-known pro ana website bluedragonfly.com. (This domain has since been changed to ceruleanbutterfly.com) Hope to clear up the issue.
btw I didn’t mean to imply that anyone here is calling ED’s disgusting- just something to keep in mind
Juli Ana:
Welcome!
I don’t think that proanas are “disgusting” at all… quite honestly, I totally get where you’re coming from. In my darkest ana days, I would have been happy to visit the proana sites.
My take is that they need to be discussed. So many people don’t realize that they exist, but I think it’s important to talk about them.
Thanks for the update on the red, purple and black/blue! I appreciate that! You know, I’ve been meaning to do an update for about 100 years… I really should get to that!
Hi im 14 and to me pro ana sites arnt bad it just really depends on the person visiting them. I still go to them to relate with ppl who know what I feel. Its just that a couple of years ago I started to go down hill and became very self contious about my body so I turned to them for refuge and they really pushed me over. So It really depends on weather the person is stable enough in their mental state in my opinion.
Hi guys!
Firstly, nice blog, however dont jump down your daughters throats if there wearing a red bracelet! chances are if it is for Pro-Ana they wouldnt wear it infront of you anyways hehe
and Secondly!!! red beaded bracelets ARENT anorexia awareness, they are PRO-ANA (i used to have anorexia and lived wholey within the sub culture)
They were designed so that if us girls were out and saw antoher skinny girl, while we were jealously admiring her coollar bones etc we could check her wrists to see if she was ana aswell and to help us find friends who we could relate to.
its not so much a sign of pride,
but a reminder during the days battles and a symbol to help us link with those who share our pain.
pro mia is purple!!!
Red is ana
Black AND Blue is self-mutilation
Purple is mia
I wear blue because I’m a cutter (I have BPD, and am in therapy for it, so don’t bash or I’ll bash you back for being ignorant).
The dragonfly is because there was once a website (the longest running pro ana site) called http://www.bluedragonfly.org You could send the girl cash to her PO Box and she’d send you the bracelet of your choice. I ordered some for SM, but she never sent them…if I find her, I’m going to have to remind her to send them…that’s actually how I found this…
Good luck with your daughter. The website I posted, click on it, if that is your daughter’s bracelet, that is where she bought it and she is probably pro ana.
Best wishes,
Pyretta
ehhm i dont get it
wats the green and yellow stand for?
Pyretta,
Here is the website for the bracelet project by Blue Dragonfly:
http://www.ringsworld.com/pro_ana/10.html
I dislike people like you intensely. I have a red dragonfly bracelet, and because of you my mother has asking if I am pro-ana.
People like you who jump up and down and make a Mount Everest out of a mole hill. You’d really have every girl with either a red or blue bracelet be suspected of an ED? I’d say most women have at least one red or blue bracelet you idiot.
And as for pretending to wear one in some ridiculous type of espionage? Get your nose out of other people’s business- because really, it isn’t any of yours.
First of all,
I’m pretty certain that this article is for awareness you idiot…and how dare your parents care enough to ask you questions about a bracelet w/a dragonfly on it…a type of bracelet that has been connected to ED
either think critically before the next time you speak, or don’t bother at all
oh no! your mommy is asking about your health…god it must be so hard on you! poor thing!!
im pretty sure the color for pro mia is purple, not blue.
I’ve been a member of the so-called “pro ana underground” for over 6 years now and I had to comment, because I believe there’s a lot of misunderstanding surrounding the concept.
I just want to emphasize that EVERY COMMUNITY AND EVERY FORUM IS DIFFERENT. Yes, there are some sites where people post images of skeletal celebrities and encourage each other to starve, but there are also a lot of sites where people are just encouraging each other to live as well as they can, given what they’re dealing with.
Many people with eating disorders, as I’m sure you all know, feel isolated. It’s comforting to know that there are people out there who understand what you’re going through.
The term “pro-ana” has been used to describe every point of view from “Yay, ana!! Starving is awesome!” to “I have a problem, but I am not ready to be forced into recovery; I need to speak and be understood.” Personally speaking, I hate the term “pro-ana” because it implies that sufferers are actively celebrating an illness when the vast majority are not. “Neutral-ana” would be a more fitting expression for most.
Putting this huge range of intentions under one umbrella – villainizing all non-recovery-oriented sites – hurts the people out there who are benefitting from the support.
I believe the red bracelet was intended as a symbol of solidarity – you can look at the bracelet on your wrist and remember that you’re not alone in your struggles. If you ever meet another person wearing one, you know that you are both fighting the same fight.
However, the meaning of the bracelet has been bastardized and twisted, and as a result, people think that the bracelet is intended as a “reminder not to eat.” That is NOT what it’s supposed to mean.
I just ask anybody who’s exploring the whole “pro-ed” thing – don’t be quick to jump to conclusions, because the community is extremely diverse.
And incidentally, a lot of people wear red dragonfly bracelets for a totally different reason – I believe it’s some kind of symbol for spiritual transformation (?).
red glass beads is anorexia but there’s some self-harmers who use them through the link self-harm/self-injury. the dragonfly is a symbol of spiritual transformation and blue or purple glass beads are bulimia (think of it as the bella/mia clash). blue possibly can mean depression too in the way that a red ribbon can mean ana or aids or a self-injurer can wear a blue and black bracelet or an orange one.
pro-mia is PURPLE, pro-ana is red. the dragonfly thing was fazed out ages ago and aren’t very common anymore. some pro-ana think that their journey is a spiritual one too, so i guess that’s why they may have to dragonfly embodied in their pro-ana bracelet. the bracelets aren’t always made with glass beads because you can make them or buy them, so everyone is different and unique.
i have not to show off or say im proud of my EDNOS, but to see connect with other people around me. so i can have some support when i feel so depressed. its much easier to spill ur soul to a stranger than to a friend, because than u have to worry abiut judment and gossip. can everyone just leave us alone? if we wanted help we would get it. and if parental units need to discover their child has an ED maybe they should spend less time on the internet and more with their offspring.
ya you are totally right about all that i wish they would all just laeve us aloneeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so how long have you been doind ed for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have every right to hate pro-ana and pro-mia, because I personally know the pain of having an eating disorder.
An eating disorder is not a diet, or a ‘lifestyle choice’, or anything else tame that you like to call it. It is a very serious mental disease, that nobody should ever promote.
Pathetic teenaged girls (and boys) that promote eating disorders disgust me. How the Hell can you PROMOTE mental illnesses? I pity you immensely, you are so vain and looks-obsessed that you immitate mentally unstable people like myself. You just want to be thin, when really you should get a life.
okay i personally dnt think its a disease as many ppl say it is. the girls (and guys) that are anorexic or bolemic are perfectly sane. then just have a different way of aproaching their problems. same with ppl who harm themselves. thats the way THEY want to deal with their problems so just leave them alone. seriously
Has anyone mentioned that the pro mia colour is purple?
uhmm, yeah there is a huge difference in the ‘trend’ and the illness.
If someone has ana. they won’t need a braclet for ID, it will be obvious to all ‘except them probably’
Girls will try to give themself the illness because fat is ugly is this culture!
It doesn’t work that way tho, that is soo ignorant to worry about.
Maybe it’s the ones who don’t mind showing rolls hanging off them who have issues. They need yellow braclets (the color of fatty tissues) so they can be placed on diets.
Leave the ‘braclet people’ alone. They like to be thin, maybe you like to be fat, so?
If it’s killing them and they are your child then you won’t need a red or ‘purple’ bead to tell you that.
Unless you are REALLY,REALLY ’slow’..
again, get a life plzz
absolute idiot
being too fat and being too skinny are both problems….they’re both harmful..and I don’t think that anyone is condoning fatties in the same sense that they are not condoning anorexics/bulemics/ or self mutilators
it is mankind’s job to care about people outside of themselves and their family members….so how dare she make a blog that makes people aware…she’s such a horrible selfish person
or rather you’re the selfish Bitch in this situation
Interesting discussion. A lot of disagreement. I hope in the end you realize none of this is as simple as you’d like to pretend it is. This discussion is about millions of individuals with lots of different symptoms and life stories. Not everyone who is underweight has an eating disorder, but eating disorders are serious. Parents usually don’t know, (unless it’s AN) because eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes and the individual sufferer often works really hard to keep it a secret. Lot’s of interesting viewpoints. I wonder what some of you would think about your insistence that EDs are not a problem if you spent a day talking to people who are suffering immensely due to eating disorders. People who have spent years trying to convince themselves that nothing was wrong until medical complications set in. I think you would be surprised, and might just question some of your assumptions that you have it all figured out. Eating Disorders are real, biologically based disorders with serous medical consequences ranging from serious gastrointestinal damage to brain shrinkage to heart damage. Get some real information. Don’t rely on a blog to provide it.
Cool! Thanks, now i’m not even allowed 2 wear my blue bracelets (it’s also my favorite color. My mother is paranoid (i think). You don’t even get the colors right!
blue-depression
black-cutting
red-pro-ana
purple-mia
You won’t be approached unless you’re extremely skinny, and even then it’s unlikely. I wear Pro-Ana bracelets all the time and I’ve never been approached, and I’ve only heard very rare stories about anyone else.
You sound so proud that no one has cared enough to approach you about your obvious eating disorder..hooray for you…NOOOOT!!!
eating disorders aren’t jokes….they shouldn’t be taken lightly…… I have friends who have died from them so think twice before you make another comment about how you’re so cleverly evading those around you
Wow, I didn’t know about the purple bracelet for pro-mia. Though I, personally, would rather the pro-ana color be white, I like the idea.
Like there’s a ribbon for breast cancer or a blue rubber band for Make a Wish Foundation, of course there’d be something like this.
It is also nice notifying the parents about their daughter too, I guess.
As for my foster parents, they don’t care other than to tell me to at least take a multivitamin once a day.