It's Friday! Who else loves a gloomy fall day?

🌧️ Today's weather: Showers with highs in the low 70s.

🎶 Sounds like: "Vienna" by Billy Joel.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Teresa Grint!

Today’s newsletter is 999 words — a 4-minute read.

Kids are measuring themselves against AI-generated bodies that no one actually has, local mental health experts tell Axios, and it's showing up in eating disorder treatment.

The big picture: The images hurt body satisfaction even when viewers know they aren't real, research shows, and hospitals already treat hundreds of kids each year for eating disorders.

Driving the news: Some of the fake accounts pose as fitness influencers or sell wellness products, while others post AI-made before-and-after body transformations. Axios reviewed dozens of such posts, and many weren't labeled as AI.

By the numbers: Around 240 kids under age 18 in Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties were hospitalized with an eating disorder diagnosis in 2023, up from around 170 in 2019, according to Missouri Department of Health data obtained by Axios. Jackson County accounted for more than half each year.

• The state's 2024 and 2025 counts are still provisional, so they can't be compared yet, but department officials say early data shows that number climbing.

What they're saying: "When people compare themselves with those images, they may be comparing themselves against something that is edited, selectively presented, or may not even depict a real person," Kelsie Forbush, director of KU's Center for the Advancement of Research on Eating Behaviors, tells Axios.

• Her lab has already found a link between eating disorder behavior and eating disorder-related Instagram content, which is why she says parents should keep an eye on what their kids are seeing.
• She suggests that parents talk with their kids about the images. "It's a matter of helping their child align their values and interests with how they're spending their time," she says.
• Missouri Eating Disorders Council chair Annie Seal told Axios that the council is watching AI closely with "particular concern" about content pushing unrealistic standards for weight, appearance and dieting.

State of play: Don't count on the platforms to flag it. Meta lets users opt in to labeling AI content and may flag some itself, and TikTok "encourages" creators to label AI-generated or heavily edited posts.

If you need help, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders has a helpline at 866-662-1235.

Go deeper

It's fall's first weekend in Kansas City, and pretty much everywhere you look, the metro is celebrating.

The big picture: Between fall festivals and art parties in the city and across the region, you can't say "there's nothing to do."

Yes, but: Storms are threatening to put a damper on the weekend, so check for updates before you venture out.

KCMO

🎨 The Plaza Art Fair kicks off its 95th year at 5pm on Friday and runs through Sunday, turning streets normally packed with traffic into a massive walkable art gallery with artists from across the country.

• The Art Walk & Shopping Stroll offers store deals and comes with a coloring and puzzle book, and a family activity block offers artsy activities for kids.

🖌️ 18th & Vine's Arts Festival isn't your typical arts festival, with live art demonstrations and competitions, a fashion show and a wing-eating contest.

• The festivities run Friday through Sunday. A day pass is $10, and a weekend pass is $20.

Suburbs

🎡 Liberty's Fall Festival promises more than 200 vendors, plus music, carnival rides and a parade through downtown at 11am on Saturday.

• We love the festival map and interactive vendor page.
• It runs Friday through Sunday. Admission is free. Times vary each day.

🎶 Overland Park's Fall Festival runs 4pm-8pm Friday and 8am-4pm Saturday, with two stages for live music. It's the first time the city is hosting it in its newly completed farmers market.

• Organizers say you can text "OPFALLFEST" to 888777 for cancellation updates.

Two more

🚧 MoDOT will hold an open house Oct. 6 to walk drivers through the 11-month closure of I-70 between downtown and the stadiums, which starts Jan. 11 and will redirect traffic. (FOX4)

🦇 Seven bats have tested positive for rabies in KC this year, the most in more than a decade, and the health department wants you to trap any bat that gets inside so it can be tested. (FOX4)

Missouri's planned data centers would draw more than 20 times the power of the ones running by the end of this year, per records analyzed by market intelligence company Cleanview.

Why it matters: Most of that growth is aimed at the Kansas City metro, where the biggest projects have already started construction and generated fights over power, water and tax breaks.

By the numbers: The state will have 11 data centers running by the end of this year at around 340 megawatts. The 50 planned after that would push capacity past 7,400 megawatts.

• Running at two-thirds capacity, typical for a data center, the average new one uses enough energy to power 54,000 homes, according to Cleanview.

Catch up quick: Google's Project Mica in the Northland could draw up to 500 megawatts.

• Nebius won more than $6 billion in tax breaks for an 800-megawatt campus in Independence.

The latest: Nebius broke ground in May after a judge blocked residents from forcing a vote, and the campus will eventually run on its own natural gas plant at the retired Blue Valley site.

• Its chairman expects the first phase online by mid-2027.

Across the state line: Kansas would grow from around 30 megawatts across three data centers to nearly 1,400 across nine, a jump officials credit to a 2025 state law offering 20-year sales tax breaks.

• Cloverleaf's Project Bluestem south of Tonganoxie doubled to 1.2 gigawatts with an on-site gas plant after Leavenworth County let its moratorium expire in August.

Learn more

🎉 Abbey is off celebrating her birthday today.

🎷 Travis might go to the Gold Line Saxophone Quartet tonight in Prairie Village.

Edited by Chloe Gonzales.