Publication Party! Shani Raviv discusses and signs “Being Ana”

Shani Raviv is a struggling adolescent living in an eccentric female household in Johannesburg, South Africa. At fourteen, influenced by her clique, she gets hooked on dieting. Over the next decade, she tries to find self-worth in sex, happiness in drugs and alcohol, comfort in cutting, and above all, salvation in starving. A spiritual epiphany one night awakens her to the fearful realization that she has lost her sense of self to anorexia (Ana)— and has to decide whether to surrender and risk losing Ana to go in search of nourishment and her true self in a sober world.

Being Ana is an exploration into the soul and psyche of a young woman wrestling with anorexia’s demons—one that not only exposes the real horrors of a day in the life of an anorexic girl but also reveals the courage it takes to stop fighting and find healing.

Shani Raviv is a published writer, writing coach, copywriter/content producer, and speaker who was born and raised in South Africa. She disputes the belief that an anorexic mindset is a life sentence and considers herself fully recovered. She lives in the Bay Area with her son.