This is a fiction submission, from the movie “Bad Words.”

When I was in the fourth grade, I was in spelling bees. Spelling was something I was very good at and my parents encouraged me to pursue. I could be fat and still spell well! I did very good in my school wide spelling bee and moved on to a county wide one, and then a tri-county bee. I was at this much bigger spelling bee with one other girl from my school, everyone else was from other schools. I remember sitting on stage- I can still remember what I was wearing- a purple and white dress with a black sweater on. I felt confident and happy to be there. It was exciting! I was accomplishing something! So you can imagine how I felt when the kid next to me started making comments about my weight. We hadn’t actually started yet and were just chilling on stage. He told me that my chair had told him to come rescue it. He said my chair was crying because I was so fat. I got so upset. To this day I feel like I didn’t perform my best because of that little twerp. I missed a word and at least got to get off the stage.

Fat shaming little boy made me lose my chance at continuing my spelling career.