About the Author

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

That’s what pops in my head when I’m in a room and someone purposefully doesn’t look at me. It started in junior high at the graduation dance - I thought I looked amazing in the peach dress I’d gotten from my neighbor - and I asked the nerdiest kid in the whole class to dance.

He said no, laughed, and walked away looking smug.

For one blissful moment I was stunned, I really had no idea why he wouldn’t dance with me - a helpful (read awful) boy looked over and said, “Why would he dance with your fat ass?”

Oh…okay.

Fast forward to Senior year of high school. My “best friend” and I were at her house sitting and she said something that would change my life forever…

“You’re so lucky - when a boy likes you, you know it isn’t just for your body.”

No, I didn’t hit her. I made a decision - I would never be with a man that didn’t want me for my body. Sure it’s shallow, so what, we’re all a little bit shallow. But I’ll tell you what, since I made that decision it allowed me to accept that there are men that like an ass to grab, boobs to watch jiggle, and a woman that loves herself.

I had a great run until about five years ago when I got married. My husband loves me so much and gets really angry sometimes when I get overwhelmed and confused and think that if I was thin the world would love me more and I’d be a guest on Oprah.

He gently (read yells) reminds me that I don’t want to be on Oprah anyway, it’s not my target market and that I look fine the way I am. He gets really exasperated if I openly express my unhappiness with my body image. Mostly because he just gets tired of hearing about it because most of the time I’m okay with myself, so even if it seems like the end of the world to me in the moment, he knows it’s a passing issue.

I have some kids, some dogs, a business, and a really awesome life.

The interesting part is that most of what I have and who I am is because of being fat, not despite being fat. People are amazed that I have kickin’ social skills until they get to know me and are amazed that I’m not shy about being fat (or using the term fat.) It exists.

I’m blonde.
My eyes are blue.
I’m fat.
I wear glasses.

Fat isn’t who I am, it is one of the things that describes me.