10 Comments
Jul 27, 2021Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith

First of all, I love this post (and I am head over heels for Bodies Are Cool! I wonder how different my life might have been had I had this book as a kid...) I would personally like to see "here’s a list of great books about X."

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Yay! I have so many of those lists...

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Jul 27, 2021Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith

I should have mentioned also: I write a weekly Substack newsletter about children's books and how to create a culture of reading in your home... if you created those lists, I'd be thrilled to share any one of them and help direct more eyeballs (and hopefully subscriptions) your way. Your work is so important. It's often hard for me to read (sometimes it outright triggers me), but I'm incredibly grateful for it.

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Sarah! I love your newsletter and this idea! We’ll talk… and thanks so much for the kind words about my work.

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Jul 27, 2021Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith

I agree! I feel like it would be great if we could coordinate the lists around awareness and heritage months, especially.

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That’s a great idea. I would want to bring in other voices to cover books in heritage months that aren’t my identity, I think… something to explore!

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Jul 27, 2021Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith

I would love a book club! I'm just now becoming introduced to intuitive eating, so recommendations on where and how to start would be great. I also am interested in books that take on current cultural norms around food and body size. At this point I'd like non-fiction, but wouldn't be opposed to fiction books that covers this ground too.

Also, thank you for this newsletter. Last week I decided to stop restricting my food. I have enormous thin privilege, but have gained weight in the last few years and am working to become comfortable with where my body wants and needs to be right now. Thanks for the guidance, information and hope.

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author

Thanks for this feedback! And congrats on stopping restriction. So glad we can support you.

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Jul 27, 2021Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith

I'm a mom of two boys and my oldest is a young teen. His friends are all thin and super active, and while my guy is also super-active he is bigger, and always has been. His friends "help" him by sharing diet plans and workout routines. This bothers me. I'd love to find resources for him that could normalize body image for teen boys without being "the fat kid book" if you know what I mean. I was definitely the fat girl growing up and feel like in the '70s and '80s there were a lot of books about fat girls, but fat boys in fiction/movies were either Chunk from the Goonies, Ricky from Better Off Dead, or later on, the mean cousin in Harry Potter. If there are any pop-culture resources that portray XL teen boy characters in a positive light, or healthy magazines/websites for teen boys that don't have six-pack abs on the cover, I'd love to find them!

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I am working on a list of YA novels... so far they all have girl protagonists, but I will keep hunting! I do know that Charlotte Markey, a Rutgers psychology researcher has a book coming out soon called The Body Image Book For Boys -- haven't read it yet, but sounds promising!

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