Blythe Baird

Blythe Baird (born August 5, 1996) is an American poet, author, and actress from Chicago, Illinois. Her writing covers themes such as mental illness, eating disorders, sexuality, feminism, and trauma.

Personal life and career Blythe Baird grew up in Palatine, a village in Cook County, Illinois.

Throughout her adolescence, Baird struggled with eating disorders. During her sophomore year of high school, she went to intensive rehabilitation for her mental and physical health. Upon Baird's return to school, she became interested in poetry when poet Sierra DeMulder, who was brought in to perform, presented a poem on anorexia.

Baird joined “Slam Camp,” the slam poetry camp at which DeMulder taught. Afterwards, she began competing at slam competitions such as Lethal Poetry in Chicago, and Louder Than a Bomb, a youth poetry festival run by Young Chicago Authors. Her third book, Sweet, Young and Worried, was published on November 29, 2022. In her writing, Baird discusses topics such as mental health, eating disorders, sexuality, healing, and trauma. Glamour, ELLE, and TEDxMinneapolis.

In 2014, she was selected as the youngest competitor for the national team representing Chicago's Lethal Poetry group at the 2014 National Poetry Slam. In 2020, Baird was given the McKnight Fellowship for Writers, Loft Award in Spoken Word by the Loft Literary Center in Minnesota, and a $25,000 grant.