Angie Manfredi - The Other F Word

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Manfredi, Angie, editor.
Title: The (other) F word : a celebration of the fat & fierce / edited by Angie Manfredi.
Description: New York: Amulet Books, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019011713 | ISBN 9781419737503 (hardback) | eISBN: 978-1-68335-582-3
Subjects: LCSH: Body image. | Self-confidence.
Classification: LCC BF697.5.B63 O84 2019 | DDC 306.4/613dc23

For author and illustrator copyrights, see .
Illustrations copyright 2019 Lisa Tegtmeier
Book design by Hana Anouk Nakamura

Published in 2019 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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Amulet Books is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

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For my parents, Roy and Mary Alice Manfredi, who taught me to take this world on with fearless confidence. And for every fat teenager reading this: theres so much greatness out here waiting for you. Come find us, we love you.

Dear Reader,

Your body is perfect. Yes, yours. Exactly the way it is, right now in this second.

Thats the first thing I want everyone who picks up this book to know. But especially all the fat readers. This book is a love letter to you and a guidebook on how to navigate this world... and maybe even a blueprint for how to change it.

There are so many moments in your life as a fat person that are burned into your brain: the first time you awkwardly pulled down a shirt to cover yourself up on the beach when everyone else was pulling clothes off, the first time you heard a skinny friend call themselves FAT like it was the worst thing they could possibly be, the first time you went into a store and realized that even their plus-size section didnt have anything that would fit you, the first time someone who cared about you said something about how much prettier/more handsome you would look if you were just a few pounds lighter. Now imagine youve had all those experiencesand morebefore you even turn eighteen. Many of you have lived that and much worse. And many of you are living through hard times right now. And I want you to know that so many people understand how it can be so hard and so lonely.

But theres another moment more and more fat people are getting to experience: the first moment they realize theres nothing wrong with being fat.

The book you are holding in your hands is about all those moments and, moreover, its about helping you get to that second moment. I have always believed that when we learn to accept our bodies the way they arewhen we learn to love ourselves exactly as we are in the immediate momentit can shift the world. And now, with this book, with these words, I hope that YOU can begin to change your world and in doing that maybe change a little bit of the rest of the world too.

When I assembled the 30 voices in this anthology, I strove to portray the entire fullness of the fat experience. So often when you hear people talk about body positivity you see able-bodied, white women who are a size 12. I wanted this anthology to move past this small box, and so, within these pages, youll hear from queer fat people, disabled fat people, and fat IPOC (Indigenous/people of color). There are voices in this book of superfat runway models and fat poets, artists, entrepreneurs, designers, writers, and scholars. This is a book that encompasses the true breadth and depth of fat life in a unique way that I think will give you a chance to see all the possibilities of living a full, happy, fun life as a fat person. You can have all this, and more, and all your dreams can come true. None of it depends on what size pants you wear.

More than anything, this is a book about love. If I had to come back to the one theme that brought all these pieces together, its how much love they were all written with. Its a note, from the other side, from all the fat people who have had that other moment: the moment when they know that hating yourself is a losing game, the moment when they know its OK to wear the crop top, the moment they stop apologizing and start living. We love you, and we want you to know that youre not alone. Theres a whole community of fat people waiting for you, and we think youre awesome. We made you this book because we want you to know that youre important and you matter. Thank you for reading this book, for sharing it, for helping spread the moments that can change the world.