Throughout my teens and early twenties, I was a walking medical mystery. I suffered from crippling anxiety, gut chaos, fatigue, and a grab bag of weird symptoms no one could diagnose. I bounced from doctor to doctor, racking up prescriptions like Pokémon cards, but no one could figure out what was wrong. I wasn’t living. I was just dragging myself miserably through life.

Eventually, I did what any desperate, nerdy, stubborn person would do: I became my own case study. I dove headfirst into research, reading everything I could get my hands on about how the body works. And wouldn’t you know it? Within days of changing my diet and lifestyle, my symptoms started to finally improve. That experience permanently changed me. I was driven not just to heal myself, but to make sure nobody else wasted years suffering like I did.

Eventually I quit my job in video/online games, went back to school (yes, the girl who once hated and flunked out of it), earned a Master of Science in Human Nutrition, and became a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. I started working with clients, helping them navigate the same chaos I had once faced. But over time, I realized something important: I wasn’t built for the counseling life. My superpower was investigation—digging into the science, exposing the lies, and teaching people how to think for themselves.

That’s why I created Let Me Learn Ya way back in 2013. I wanted a place to share what I was learning. And that’s also why I jumped at the chance when I got the opportunity to teach as a nutrition professor. Between teaching, running this site, and occasionally yelling at wellness influencers on the internet, something had to go. I stepped away from private practice to go all-in on what I do best: learning, digging, myth-busting, and educating.

These days, my students call me Professor McCarthy and I jokingly call myself the Investigative Dietitian. I don’t tell people what to eat—I teach them how to spot B.S., think critically, and take back control of their health. Because let’s be real: you don’t need another guru. You can only rely on someone telling you what to eat for so long. I’ll teach you how to fish, and then I’ll hand you a microscope so you can dissect the fish, challenge the fish industry, and start your own damn ocean revolution.