CW for explicit examples of anti-fatness and misogyny.
A few weeks ago, the New York Times ran a piece about my work and included a photo of the snack shelf in my pantry. I knew they would take the pantry photo, because every time my work gets written about in the mainstream media, they photograph, or talk about, my snack shelf.
This fixation started last year, when I told The Cut that, at that particular moment, the snack shelf in my pantry contained Puff’d Cheez-Its, Extra Toasty Cheez-Its, and Goldfish, along with Girl Scout cookies and Chewy chocolate chip granola bars. Then The Times of London ran a profile with the headline “We have no food rules at home—I let my kids eat whatever they want,” which reads like a quote but is not a sentence I ever said to that reporter.
Ever since, even though I’m not a dietitian or feeding therapist, I’m now asked how I feed my kids in every interview. Every time a media outlet reports on my work, there is a flurry of Internet handwringing in comment sections and on Reddit threads about the food in my home. Fitness bros and thin dietitians scold me in their TikToks. And I receive a whole bunch of emails telling me that my groceries are child abuse.
So what’s really in my snack cabinet, right now? And do I really have “no rules” about it?