When I was a (fat) kid, I was a VORACIOUS reader. My elementary school library was small and somewhat old, but I probably read every book in it. That included multiple books about kids being sent away to fat camp where the characters were often on “meal plans” like half a grapefruit for breakfast, a salad for lunch and a baked chicken breast for dinner. As a kid, one of my biggest fears was being sent away from home, put on something that’s basically a starvation diet, and forced to excercise until I injured myself.

This was after a divorce, a custody battle, and us being broke enough that we qualified for a charity holiday basket one Christmas. My life was not all roses and sparkles then. But being sent to a fat camp was one of my biggest fears, because that was the only time that fat characters appeared in books. Sure, you’d get the occasional very skinny, very tall character but they got to “blossom” or be a “swan”.

Fat characters got sent away or slimmed down before they got interesting stories.

Thin privilege is seeing yourself in books as a child. Thin privilege is every depiction of your body type not being about how horrible it is and how much you need to be changed.