The conventional female lead we get to see—no matter how quirky the character, no matter how different, intelligent, brave, strong, or “badass”—is almost always skinny.

In a cis-normative world, dysphoria is often perceived as body negativity and trans persons’ desire to physically transition is often incorrectly viewed as a patriarchal aspiration.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fat—first, a chubby kid and then, an overweight adult. Somehow, it never bothered me. No one spoke about dieting or achieving a target weight in my family. I was happy the way I was, or so I thought.

"Growing up, I actually believed I had to lose weight to find someone and I honestly did put out a lot of energy in trying to lose weight. And I think that was the biggest mistake I made."~ Amena Aziz, Plus Size Fashion Blogger in an interview to Smashboard.