This is my first submission to this blog. I’ve been reading it for about a month and I’ve learned so much about the fat acceptance movement and how awesome it is to have others like you sticking up for the right for their fat bodies to exist. Thank you so much for creating this space!

About a week ago, my parents and I toured a college about two hours away. It was a prestigious college and I was going to apply for there after I graduate this year.

So we got matched with a tour guide and everything was going well. He was pretty cute and muscular. There were others in the tour group with us, all thin people except for me, my parents, and one other girl. This becomes relevant later.

Eventually, we were let into the dorm rooms to see what they look like. Dorm rooms are notoriously small. The tour guide explained how, to create more space, you could buy these plastic bed risers to raise up the beds and have more storage space.

Then, one of the parents on our tour asked the guide, “Hey, is there a weight limit on the risers? You don’t want to break those.” The tour guide stared at me and the other girl. “If it’s a problem, then they can run a couple miles on the trails out back. If you’re just too large, you’re going to have to find somewhere else to go. There won’t be enough space for you here.” he said in a joking manner.

Thin privilege is being able to attend a college tour and check out the dorms without being shamed for your weight and told to just go somewhere else to find space.

I just hope there are colleges out there that don’t like to shame people.