Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Does This Book Make Me Look Fat?: Stories About Loving -- and Loathing -- Your Body

Rate this book
How often do you find yourself looking in the mirror? And smiling at what you see?
More likely, you're thinking what you see Fat, Ugly, Skinny, Round, Stacked or Flat, Bad or Good. From reality television to tabloid headlines, we're all surrounded by weight and discussion of weight. In this collection, a stellar lineup of YA writers sound off on body image., self-esteem, diets, eating disorders, boys, fashion magazines, and why trying on jeans is a bad experience for everyone. There are eight powerful short stories and six moving personal essays from authors whose works include two New York Times bestsellers, a Los Angeles TImes Book Prize, and a Printz Honor; an appendix offers book, movie, and music recommendations. (And in case you're still wondering, No this book does not make you look fat.)

208 pages, Hardcover

First published December 29, 2008

Loading interface...
Loading interface...

About the author

Marissa Walsh

6 books17 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
55 (18%)
4 stars
102 (33%)
3 stars
97 (32%)
2 stars
33 (10%)
1 star
14 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 56 reviews
Profile Image for Laurie.
110 reviews2 followers
September 1, 2011
Loved it. I was very big from about 3rd grade until the end of 8th grade. My sister called me beached whale. You get the picture. It's a tough thing to live with, and it stays with you even if you get thin. I liked all the perspectives shown though the short stories in this book. Some of my favorite authors contributed.
Profile Image for Jennifer Wardrip.
Author 5 books516 followers
December 30, 2008
Reviewed by Breanna F. for TeensReadToo.com

With fourteen stories and personal essays written by popular authors such as Sara Zarr, Carolyn Mackler, Ellen Hopkins, and more, this book is quite amazing. The stories all focus on the weight and body image issues that most everyone has at one point in their life.

Whether it's feeling overweight or thinking you're too skinny, how you feel that your breasts are either way too small or way too big, everyone has issues with their bodies.

Not much else I can really say about this book. I actually loved each and every one of the stories, and that really surprised me. I thought at least one or two of them I probably wouldn't end up liking.

I'd recommend DOES THIS BOOK MAKE ME LOOK FAT? to anyone who has issues with their body and even to people who don't. Every single story is just written so well. I didn't want to finish the last one when I got to it.

The only thing wrong with this book: it should have been longer!

Profile Image for Jenny.
1,185 reviews
May 28, 2011
The awesome author of this sent a copy to me before it even came out and I somewhat just realized over 2 years later that I haven't reviewed the book yet. Oops! I apologize. I did read it shortly after receiving it. One of the best (if not the best) title of all time. Body image is one of the main topics of this book but I have to admit that I actually did feel fat while reading this b/c to me all of the authors sounded very skinny (they listed their shirt sizes). I don't have the book handy but I don't recall a single XL or XXL author in the group. I'm half kidding...I didn't feel fat but I did wonder where all the XL and XXL writers were when this was written.
Profile Image for CJ.
422 reviews
December 27, 2008
I liked many of the essays in this book. Some of them were a little too fantasy-world, but most of them made me think. When I finished it, I went to my mother and put the book in her hands. She's had body image issues her whole life - thinking she isn't thin enough - so I told her to put down anything else she was reading and read this. It goes to my teenage daughter next.
Profile Image for Hallie.
954 reviews127 followers
Read
March 1, 2010
From my 2009 books LJ:

Finally, The Best-Intentioned Book that Manages To Be Much Less Than Its Highlights Suggest It Should Be:

- Does This Book Make Me Look Fat? ed. by Marissa Walsh. Also possibly winner of worst title ever. The highlights for me were Daniel Pinkwater's cheerful and self-accepting essay about being the F-word. Fat. Indeed he writes 10 'fat's in a row, in the midst of explaining that it's the one word you can't say. The other was Sara Zarr's 'It Is Good', which tells with great eloquence how she came to believe that she'd forfeited her 'right to basic respect and decency' by being fat. 'That the only way to buy my rights back was to lose weight.' Some of the essays and stories were okay, some good (I particularly liked Jaclyn Moriarty's, which is well weird) but the one which is narrated by the brother of a girl who's severely ill with anorexia, who eventually has to accept that her anorexia was caused by his telling her that the girls at his college have to 'be a perfect ten' for him to really like them, not so much. Well-meaning doesn't excuse such a simplistic treatment of a very complex disease. I haven't read/seen all of the recommended books/films, but it doesn't look a very valuable resource, which seems less surprising on re-consideration of the editor's introductory piece: someone who's clearly far from fat-acceptance herself might not have been the best choice for editor. And the final page's 'No, this book does not make you look fat.' just made me queasy.
Profile Image for Elizabeth Scott.
Author 113 books3,463 followers
March 27, 2009
A collection of essays and stories from authors like Ellen Hopkins, Sarra Manning, and Barry Lyga. This book is sad and funny and smart and wise--in short--So. Good.
Profile Image for Katie Fitzgerald.
Author 6 books215 followers
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
October 15, 2016
Read Pretty Hungry by Ellen Hopkins on 10/22/12.

In "Pretty, Hungry" by Ellen Hopkins, teenager Lorelei Jeanne recounts, in verse, the unfortunate lessons she has learned from the people in her life about the relationship between weight and beauty. As in most of her writing, Hopkins does not shy away from the dark side of life, and her story about Lorelei involves an alcoholic mother, a judgmental, absent father, and at least one two-timing boyfriend.

The poems begin with Lorelei’s premature birth, discussing how she was formula-fed from the beginning and given comfort through food. Later, she recalls how her father implied she couldn’t be beautiful unless she could also be thin, and how this sent her down the path of starvation. As the story progresses, Lorelei also talks about the reactions of her grandmother and the boys in school to her ever-decreasing size.

This is not a story about anorexia, but rather a sad contemplation on the consequences of not feeling beautiful or thin enough. Lorelei learns that her value as a person depends upon how much she weighs, and she never sees herself as pretty until someone else labels her as such. She relies completely on her father’s opinion of her looks and can’t see her own beauty, on the inside or the outside.

This powerful story would be a wonderful way to open a discussion among teen girls about the pressures placed on them to be skinny, or to look a certain way that society has deemed “beautiful.” Readers who have already discovered Ellen Hopkins through novels in verse like Crank, Glass, and Impulse already know they can trust her to be honest with them, and the brutality of the truths she illustrates through "Pretty, Hungry" is just strong enough to really get through to teens and resonate with them. Girls will both empathize with and pity Lorelei, and this combination of feelings is likely to stick with them even after they have walked away from the story and moved onto something else. This is a powerful story with a vitally important message every woman, young and old, can benefit from hearing.
Profile Image for Laina SpareTime.
480 reviews20 followers
December 30, 2020
Cross-posted from my blog where there's more information on where I got my copy and links and everything.

Yes, this book does make me look fat. All books do, because I am fat. My body is a fat body, and it looks fat whether I’m holding a book, or not holding a book, or wearing clothes, or not wearing clothes. This is such a pet peeve of mine, much like the phrase “feeling fat”. When you say that, what do you actually mean?

I have thoughts on a few of the offerings individually, so I’ll talk about those, and then about the anthology as a whole. Note here that this is an anthology with a mixture of essays and fiction.

Circumferentially Challenged by Daniel Pinkwater: This, to me, is the best essay or story in the anthology. It talks about using the word fat in neutral and positive way, and the author IS actually, currently fat. It also states “there is a societal bias against fatness” which is great, and debunks a bit of the “But what about heeeaaaaalth” thing. It does have a couple of not great things, like the idea that fat people “should not expect to excel in the track and field category” of sports, but while a bit dated, it’s pretty good.

Mirror, Mirror by Megan McCafferty: This made a giant thing about “negative-zero jeans” which is a size that as far as I know doesn’t exist. It’s told from the POV of a mirror and feels incredibly shallow, stereotypical, and misogynistic.

Alterations by Eireann Corrigan: This is an essay about a person with a history of severe anorexia talking about how they deliberately bought a wedding dress two sizes too small, but it was totally okay because they lost weight “the right way” this time. This made me incredibly uncomfortable and I feel as though it could be very, very triggering for someone with a history of disordered eating.

Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others by Sarra Manning: I really didn’t like this story. It’s very victim-blaming at times, and has transmisia and unchecked homomisia. Also, the main character says her friend is totally not fat when she feels nice to her, but calls her fat when she’s mad at her, clearly using body size as an insult. I guess she’s not supposed to be a role model, but it’s just unpleasant. It’s also just… I dunno, the whole thing rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because it’s the whole “a makeover montage makes solves all problems” thing.

HELLO my name is by Carolyn Mackler: I agree with the main point of this essay, that commenting on peoples’ bodies is unacceptable and also a freaking RUDE thing to do when you first meet someone. However, she talks about “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, which if you’re not familiar, is one of very few early YA books with a fat protagonist. People still recommend this book when you ask for fat-positive rep (even though I think it ends with the MC losing weight?).

And she says, “More than anything, though, Virginia’s weight was a metaphor for all the ways we feel insecure, don’t measure up, don’t fit in, don’t think we’re as deserving as other people.” And I think that sums up my entire problem with (some, obviously) thin people who write books with fat main characters. A fat body is not a metaphor for insecurity. A fat body is a body. A fat person is a person.

Pretty, Hungry by Ellen Hopkins: Ellen Hopkins has a racism problem and I don’t support her.

Supplements: This is a list of “Books That Fit” that, among others, recommends Judy Blume’s Blubber, Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher, Little Miss Tiny by Roger Hargreaves (???), One Fat Summer by Robert Lipsyte, Holes by Louis Sachar, and Forever in Blue by Ann Brasheres. Now I like Holes, but I think the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants book (the fourth book, for some reason) is the only one with a fat character that doesn’t have that character ending their arc in weight loss and I don’t even remember if the girl in that series is even meant to be actually fat.

There’s also a movie/TV show section that recommends “Super Size Me”. Did we not know in 2008 that he faked his results on that whole thing?

Overall: This was published in 2008 and it shows, but even with that in mind, it seems incredibly confused about what it wants to do. The whole thing where half of the entries were essays and half were fiction confused me. There’s at least one story where I legit could not tell if a selection was nonfiction or fiction. I almost wonder if it’s so that the book would be put in the YA fiction section of libraries versus nonfiction.

I just can’t tell what their deal is. Other than the first essay by Daniel Pinkwater, I can’t say any of these are fat positive. Most of the entries about fat people are about weight loss in some way or another. Fatness also is often conflated with overeating – disordered eating, really – or eating almost stereotypically “unhealthily”, and weight loss is almost always seen as a good thing as long as you do it the “right” way. And of course it’s as simple as “eat less, move more”. The only other entry about fatness that doesn’t revolve around weight loss is about how bad plus size shopping was in the 80s.

Where are the stories about loving your fat body I was promised?

There are also exactly two entries from authors who aren’t white, and the only story to mention sexual orientation or gender identity did so derisively. And in the “About the Contributors”, they specifically give every author’s size (and the editor). So I tallied that up. 1 XS, 2 S, 6 M, 1L, 2 XL, 2 XXL, and 1 XXXL. One author also chose to say “That depends who I’m standing next to”, which honestly, good for them, but I googled that author and they’re very thin. So 11 thin authors, 2 authors probably between straight sized and plus sized, and 3 fat authors. Those numbers feel off for a book with “Fat” in the title.

I keep asking who this book is for and I guess it’s for thin white girls struggling with their body image, but even then I wouldn’t recommend it. The anthology often talks about specific weights and sizes outside of the author list. I can’t imagine reading this as a fat teen and reading how insulting some of these stories are about a (plus) size I was larger than. It’s just not kind to fat people, and I think many of the messages about eating could be harmful to people of all sizes.

Am I allowed to recommend the anthology I’m in instead? XD It’s a whole lot more inclusive.
Profile Image for Jade West.
24 reviews
June 29, 2015
AMAZING in a sad way.
The book was a great binding of stories of people's insecurities and the want to fit in. The most touching story was the one of the little girl who wanted her father to love her, driving herself to think that "Being hungry mean being pretty" It was so sad!
they really have the opinions down as to the extremes people go to. But I find it hard myself to suddenly take it upon myself to exercise. However, the entire story was a sad hit, in an amazing way. The first thing the book tells you is that you picked up the book because you are also insecure. Au contraire, I picked it up because I wanted to see the other way people have suffered. But I'm sure the analysis was correct. I'm tempted to bring the book with me out in public and see if people would approach me and respond to the title, maybe a "The book doesn't make you look fat" to "Course you look fat" I'm not really fat, I'm average. But in comparison to the photoshopped models I might as well be.
So! Book was great, if you feel bad about yourself or constantly seek others opinions the book is easy to relate to.
Profile Image for Eva Mitnick.
771 reviews30 followers
August 28, 2008
These 14 contributions by various writers, mostly YA, vary wildly in tone and length. Some are short stories, some are essays, and some are semiautobiographical. Coe Booth's How to Tame a Wild Booty is fabulous, but most of the others I found only mildly entertaining to slightly dull. Fatness (or perceived fatness) seemed to be the predominating body image problem, although some contributions (such as Jaclyn Moriarty's surreal The Day Before Waterlily Arrived) explore other issues. All in all, I hoped for more from such a stellar group of writers.
Profile Image for English Education.
260 reviews2 followers
Read
October 29, 2014
This book is a collection of short stories and essays written by young adult authors. The book tackles many issues of self-esteem and body image. This book is meant to help people learn to love and respect themselves. The book is also beneficial to people who are struggling with a friend or family member who has issues with self-esteem. Students can connect to this book because almost everyone has struggled with their body image or low self-esteem at some point in their life. This book can also make students reevaluate their actions towards someone who looks different than themselves.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ashlin Edmisten.
388 reviews
February 5, 2017
This book was hit or miss with me, but overall I enjoyed it a lot. Some of the stories really spoke to me, while I couldn't relate to others. I think this is a good thing because that means it will encompass a good span of readers.

The stories that I enjoyed most were "Alterations" by Eireann Corrigan and "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" by Sarra Manning.

I'd definitely suggest that those struggling with body image try this book on for size. I think there's something for everyone in here.
Profile Image for Melissa.
761 reviews15 followers
April 13, 2015
Too many stereotypes and judgement in this book. Some of the essays were excellent, but others.....not so much.

There didn't seem to be much consistency throughout the book. Which could have made it interesting......

A good fluff read if you want something to read fast. I would have liked it more if I felt more of the stories had depth.

Teenagers would most assuredly get more out of it than I did.
Profile Image for Anastasia Tuckness.
1,460 reviews14 followers
July 1, 2016
I actually only read one story from this book--"The Last Red Light Before we Get There" by Matt de la Pena. He visited our library (!) yesterday, and I wanted to have read some of his work. The short story is AMAZING! All the characters and events are knit tightly together, addressing a variety of body image issues along with other gritty realities of life. Highly recommended for older teens/adults.
Profile Image for Erin.
528 reviews16 followers
Read
March 27, 2009
Thinking a lot about body image lately, especially in the health at any size/self acceptance sort of way. This book of short stories traverses all the uncomfortable bits and arrives in various self accepting places. A good one for teens, probably mostly girls, though there are stories about boys here, too.
Profile Image for Julie N.
807 reviews27 followers
September 26, 2009
Not phenomenal or life-changing or anything, but a fun, quick read. Cute short stories, maybe they would have seemed deeper to me as a teenager, but for the most part they seemed to be fun, lighthearted looks at body issues faced by teenagers. I'd give more stars, but it's only been a week since I read it and I have no good memory of any of the stories.
Profile Image for Julia.
465 reviews13 followers
November 4, 2012
An enjoyable collection of short stories about weight and self-image issues from both male and female authors. A good read for anyone struggling with their body or low self-esteem. It's not a self-help book filled with techniques to cure your problems, but the stories are nice reminders that you're not alone.
636 reviews59 followers
July 30, 2011
Funny, dark, intelligent writing by people who know what it's like to be unhappy with their bodies and how to grow into them. Includes boss recommended reading, viewing and listening. Totally worth the time.
Profile Image for Rachel.
69 reviews15 followers
July 14, 2014
There were a couple of stories in this collection that were worth it, but for the most part it felt condescending and boring. Also, I hate it when a book about accepting yourself as you are is full of shallow beautiful archetypes.
Profile Image for Summer.
425 reviews16 followers
February 11, 2017
I enjoyed this overall. Some of the stories were really inspiring. Some of them were just plain weird, so I had to rank it a little lower. But if you're looking for a boost and a quick read, I would definitely recommend it.
Profile Image for stillme.
2,244 reviews6 followers
October 1, 2010
Great read for teens on liking yourself, no matter what your shape.
Profile Image for Amber.
1,546 reviews4 followers
March 26, 2009
Very good book. I think every women should read this book. It doesn't matter how old you are. It brings up issues that every women deal with body image.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 56 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.