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BACKGROUNDLimited research has addressed the effects of health literacy interventions in elementary schools. However, school‐aged children's health literacy is critical because children make decisions about their health every day. The purpose of the pilot project was to explore the feasibility of integrated health literacy lesson plans for second graders.METHODSA pretest‐posttest evaluation was conducted with second grade students following implementation of health literacy lessons that were integrated into core curriculum (language arts, science, and social studies).RESULTSHealth educators, a hospital/health care system, and a school district developed a partnership. A research team of teachers, administrators, health literacy experts and health care organizations designed and implemented health literacy lesson plans. A developmentally appropriate measure of health literacy was adapted from the Newest Vital Sign. Data showed that students' health literacy scores significantly increased after implementation of 4 lesson plans.CONCLUSIONSThis was an exploratory, pilot project that provided a useful starting point for discussing how to integrate health literacy into elementary school curriculum. An interdisciplinary team developed integrated health literacy materials that acknowledged the needs of teachers, the resources available, and the developmental stages of children. This intervention serves as a model for future health literacy initiatives in schools.

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Mental health advocacy organizations play an important role in mitigating stigma and questioning the social norms that can create negative health outcomes. This essay explores how a U.S. advocacy organization attempted to facilitate shared meaning about a stigmatized health issue with its online community via rhetorical vision, or narrative that connects people in shared reality. Through the lens of symbolic convergence theory (SCT), a fantasy theme analysis of the National Eating Disorders Association’s (NEDA) social media messages and comments uncovered a recovery warrior metaphor that framed eating disorder recovery as a heroic journey. The analysis describes potential reasons why NEDA would attempt to foster a rhetorical vision informed by a warrior narrative, how it used warriors as a cue to facilitate vision, and the tensions within the community that expose the evolution and limitations of recovery warriors to constitute a rhetorical vision and community. Theoretical implications are offered at the intersections of public relations and SCT. These implications provide a roadmap for advocacy organizations attempting to build symbolic community and shared narratives online in the context of stigmatized health conditions while also interrogating organizational power to shape rhetorical visions.