Cameras roll on Brevard's Wellspring Academy

BREVARD--Millions of Americans struggle with weight issues privately everyday. Starting Monday, five teenagers will let the country take an intimate look at the personal battles they waged in Western North Carolina.

"Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back," a new reality series on Style Network, follows the weight loss journeys of five students at the weight-loss boarding school for teenagers and young adults, Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas in Brevard. The series debuts at 8 p.m. Monday, August 9, on the Style Network.

The TV camera crew followed five students, ages 12-17, during the spring at the Brevard location, said John Gordon, chief marketing officer for Wellspring Academy.  The academy worked with the production company before when they filmed a documentary about one female student in 2008, so they trusted that the filmmakers would respect the students and the mission of the program.

"Our goal was to create something that was really real and that highlighted the challenge of these students to lose weight," Gordon said.

Viewers will get a glimpse into daily life at the camp: the weigh-ins and the work outs, the triumphs and failures, the laughter and the tears.

"All those things that are part of the human journey," said David Boeke, executive director of Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas. "This production company did a fabulous job of capturing that and not sensationalizing it."

"I am excited for a wide range of people to see (the series) and maybe that will inspire them to change."

The series will be presented in eight, one-hour segments. The first episode "is mostly about the arrival and their transition," Gordon said.

The five teenagers featured were chosen partly because they represented a range of backgrounds and reasons for their struggles with maintaining a healthy weight. They came to Brevard from around the country, and all left the academy in May.

"The goal is to present that there are options to raise awareness about programs that are successful," Boeke said. "That is our primary reason to open our doors; whether people come to us or another program based on science and a history of success."

Boeke said the camera crew didn't interrupt daily life for the almost 35 students at the academy. "At the beginning it was quite a novelty to have them, but they were with us for a good while and after a while, the novelty wore off," he said.

The academy has a summer camp in Canton and they are planning a viewing party Monday, Gordon said.