First off, a tip of my hat to my new readers who have found me through The Fat Girl’s Guide to Living (one of my favorite blogs) today. So happy you’re here!
So maybe you’ve heard about this, or maybe not. There’s a new series/special launching tonight on ABC Family called “Huge.” And get this: it’s about teenagers at FAT CAMP.
Seriously guys- if you know me and have read ANY of my fat camp follies posts (all linked at the end of this post), you know that fat camp made up a huge part of my life. Not just in time I spent there, but in how it shaped me in how I look at my health, my body, and even my social relationships. I will continue to write fat camp stories and talk about fat camp until the day I die.
Somehow though, when I saw the commercial for this show, I got really defensive. I could think of hundreds of stereotypes that the writers could put on these heavier actors. The potential of fat shaming, stories of outcasts who band together in kum-ba-ya moments that will inevitably disintegrate once they leave the comfort of the fat camp surroundings. The show is based on the book of the same name, by author Sasha Paley.
I don’t talk much, if at all, on here about the whole Health at Any Size (HAES) debate or the Fat Acceptance (FA) movement. I just go along my merry way of trying to get healthy and oversharing my journey. There are people in the FA community who think it’s wrong that I’m trying to lose weight- that I should accept myself as I am, etc. Are you overweight and happy with it? More power to ya! Overweight like me and feel like you need to make a journey to health? Rock on! We all as individuals are entitled to treat our bodies the way we want to. They are in our control, and how we choose to pursue healthy efforts is our own prerogative. In some ways, I think that’s what makes the whole healthy living and if so associated, weight loss journey, so difficult. We make hundreds of decisions a day that affect our health. In order to be successful, we have to make more correct decisions than incorrect ones in order to come out on top. It’s exhausting!
Anyway, now that I’m rambling, I’ll try to close it out:
I hope that “Huge” portrays some sort of underlying theme that even if you’re larger than “the norm” that you can be healthy and happy. And that the scale doesn’t dictate how healthy you are. That it’s not showing larger teenagers in a light where they must be segregated and shown as more emotionally vulnerable than the next hormonal teenager out there. I’m DVR’ing it (have to get up early to go to the gym), so I’ll probably watch it this weekend and let you know what I think. If nothing else, maybe it will conjure up some more funny fat camp stories for me to share.
Have you heard of this show? Are you going to watch it?
And if you need to catch up on my past fat camp follies posts here you go:
Hi there! I’m Emily, aka Skinny Emmie, a thirty-two year old weight loss blogger, fashion lover, social media marketer, and writer. I’m on the journey from 455 pounds to healthy. 
