Monday, February 28, 2011

Kids and my inner fat girl

I've been writing a letter to a friend's niece...well, I was writing a letter to a friend's niece, who is bullied because of her weight.

I started writing a her letter. Then it got long.

And if you know anything about me, you might have expected that a little letter would be a bit understated for me. Shucks, I'm an over-achiever.

Since the little gal likes crafty things, and since I'm pretty good with Microsoft Publisher, I decided to take my too-long text and make it into a newsletter. I have compiled her some links and am making a page or two of fantastic fat female role models.

This has been like writing a letter to my pre-teen self. It's also compelled me to reflect a bit more, not only about my own experiences, but about my relationships to other fat women growing up. I hope to write more about that soon.

But finding size-acceptance resources for kids was harder than I thought. There was a lot of stuff ABOUT kids, but very little actually written for them, on their level. What are we doing for kids? What CAN we do for kids?

2 comments:

  1. You're absolutely right. We need to do something for kids. We need something parents can give to kids.

    I'm an ex-child care worker & nanny, and now I'm a librarian. If anyone wants to collaborate on something, I'd be happy to pitch in.

    An aside, I have several friends with young daughters. It's become REALLY important that these girls see me being fat AND happy. In some cases I know they're getting negative body messages at home, so I hope that by seeing me, and being around me, they'll get SOME positive body messages.

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  2. YES! I wish there was something in the school system to support positive body image, like from Kindergarten! I'm wondering how FA could support this? I will mull this over, see what I come up with. Thanks for this. And for being a fabulous Auntie Fats, too!

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