Grateful this and every day for all of the phenomenal fat people I've come to know through doing this work.

Fatness is always supposed to be thought of as temporary, a short and embarrassing pit stop en route to our supposed true form as thin people.

A lot of fat people have internalized that idea, too. And that makes building community really, really, really difficult.

My wish for you, fellow fats, is that you are able to find fat people who don't see their bodies as blights or embarrassments. I want you to know what it's like to know people who truly understand you, and who love and support you as you are.

Few straight size people seem to grasp that for many fat people, myself included, nearly everyone in our lives expects us to change.

They try to force that change, will it into being. It shows up in their behavior, and their limited imaginations of what our lives can be.

They see us on a trajectory toward thinness & see our bodies as failures. Often even our loved ones won't embrace us as we are. That can take an immense toll on our relationships.

And that is the only narrative many of us are offered for thinking about our bodies.

I want the world for you, fellow fats. And that starts with deep, lasting, reciprocal relationships with people share your experiences, and people who know how to love you.