Yahoo Lifestyle These YA Authors Want to Change How We Talk About Body Size: 'We're Creating New Possibilities' (Exclusive)
Award-winning YA authors Crystal Maldonado, Julie Murphy, Renée Watson and Yehudi Mercado chat with Allen Zadoff on why fat and plus-size representation matters
When I first wrote about being a fat kid in 2010, the conversation about body size felt almost taboo —especially for men. My debut novel Food, Girls, And Other Things I Can't Have won awards and critical praise, but it was still a lonely space.
Since then, body positivity has entered the mainstream. From Brendan Fraser's Oscar-winning role in The Whale, to Lizzo celebrating her body on global stages and model Ashley Graham redefining beauty standards, body diversity has gained momentum. Social media has also transformed how young people see and represent themselves, creating spaces for voices that were once silenced.
Now, returning to these themes with my new YA rom-com The Donut Prince Of New York, which features a plus-sized male protagonist, I find myself wondering: What's changed in how we tell these stories? What hasn't?
To explore these questions, I spoke with four authors who've helped reshape YA literature's approach to weight and body image: Julie Murphy, whose Dumplin' sparked a revolution in representation; Crystal Maldonado, award-winning author of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and the forthcoming Get Real, Chloe Torres; Renée Watson, whose work like Love Is A Revolution and Watch Us Rise thoughtfully integrates size diversity; and Yehudi Mercado, creator of the groundbreaking graphic novel series Chunky, which explores body image through the lens of a Mexican-Jewish athlete-in-training.
"A turning point for me was when I wrote about a fat character and the story was not at all about her size," Renée Watson says. “There is no mention of her size in the book but in my mind, she was a plus-sized girl. When it came time to do the cover, the illustrator created a thin character — because thin is the default." She had to gently explain to everyone in the room, "Oh, can we make her a big girl on the cover?"
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For Julie Murphy, her own turning point came before she even wrote Dumplin’. "I didn't think a book about a plus-size character would sell or be relevant enough," she admits. "I saw myself as more of a side character in my own life. Once that perspective shifted, I realized I could write all kinds of stories with fat people in them."
Crystal Maldonado actually took inspiration from Murphy's work to write characters who aren't on a journey to become smaller. "People who look like me deserve to have their stories told," Maldonado says. "They deserve to be celebrated, they deserve joy and adventure, and they deserve happily-ever-afters, too."
“I've always wrestled with my relationship with weight and food,” says Yehudi Mercado. It wasn't until a post-Comic Con dinner with acclaimed cartoonist Raina Telgemeier that he found the courage to write about more personal topics. When he mentioned his idea for a graphic novel about his childhood as an overweight kid, she immediately urged him to "go for it."
"When the queen of comics gives you a boost," Mercado says, "You listen!"
The language we use to talk about bodies also makes a difference. Murphy recalls how one publication described her story as being about an "overweight" teenager — a term she abhors "because it assumes there's an ideal weight." These subtle language choices reveal how deeply ingrained certain narratives remain.
"I made the choice to have each of my main characters refer to themselves as ‘fat’ in a very neutral way," Maldonado explains. "Yet I've seen firsthand how hard that word can still be for people to see and to hear. I even once had an interviewer avoid saying the title of my debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega because of the word ‘fat’!”
In my novel, The Donut Prince Of New York, the plus-size main character is a playwright who ends up unexpectedly playing football. I use the term “plus-size” intentionally, while many of my fellow authors prefer to reclaim the word “fat.” When my character’s teammates start referring to him as “Pudge,” he’s deeply insulted. Later he seizes the word for himself, defusing its power. It's a small moment of rebellion that reflects a larger cultural shift: the refusal to let others define our bodies, our language or our stories.
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For too long, fat characters in novels served limited roles — usually as the funny best friend or characters who needed “fixing.” Watson aims to "widen the canon of literature about fat characters." She asks, "What if a fat girl shows up to the page healed and whole? What if a fat character does not carry the burden of representing all fat bodies?"
This push for complexity resonates across all three authors' work. "Our relationships with bodies and food can be fraught, complicated and deeply personal," Maldonado explains. In each of her books, characters share fatness but their relationship to their own bodies varies dramatically. "That variety feels important because we're not a monolith — our experiences aren't the same, yet they each matter."
When Mercado created Chunky, he found that authentic representation opened unexpected doors for him as an author. “At the end of the first book, I explain that being 'Chunky' isn't about weight — it's about feeling like you don't quite fit in,” Mercado says. He was surprised when kids reached out to share that they'd love an imaginary mascot to help cope with different challenges like learning disorders or autism. The central message of ‘Chunky’ resonated beyond just being a kid with a weight problem. "That meant everything to me," Mercado says.
The impact of these stories extends far beyond their pages. During the pandemic, readers began recreating the cover of Maldonado's debut novel, dressing up as the main character and taking photos of themselves – celebrating a protagonist who shared their features. "I cried seeing those photos," she says. "It healed a part of my younger self who so desperately wanted to feel like she belonged."
In one powerful scene from Watson’s novel, her character Jade goes shopping with her thin, white friend Sam, experiencing subtle harassment that leaves her wondering if it's because she's Black or because she's fat. "We are all breathing in this toxic air when it comes to traditional beauty standards," Watson explains.
Each author envisions a different path forward to a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of bodies in literature. For Maldonado, the future lies in expanding beyond body positivity into body neutrality and liberation. While body positivity asks people to love their bodies, these approaches focus on reducing the emphasis on appearance altogether and fighting systemic bias. "Rather than encouraging others to love their bodies, I want to help create a world that gives all bodies dignity and respect," he explains.
Watson pushes for intersectional understanding and body diversity in her work. “I want to make sure that the characters in my books look like the people in my community, in my family, in this world.”
Murphy notes how body positivity cycles through popular culture: sometimes celebrated, sometimes pushed aside. With the creation of her story development company Bittersweet Books, she’s using her success to support other authors in writing inclusive, uplifting stories about this topic from their own perspectives.
We're seeing more diverse bodies in literature, television and film than ever before, yet this progress comes at a complicated moment. Blockbuster weight-loss drugs dominate headlines and social media, highlighting a stark question: Do we want to love our bodies or reshape them? And gaps in representation remain — particularly in stories about male body image and eating disorders.
Mercado believes the conversation should shift away from size altogether and focus on well-being. He points out, "Health doesn't require fitting into conventional ideals of thinness, just as being thin doesn't necessarily equate to being healthy."
Perhaps that's the real evolution in how we tell these stories — moving past simple representation to challenging the frameworks that categorize some bodies as "other." Creating characters who aren't defined by their size but aren't asked to ignore it either.
Because ultimately I and my fellow authors are not just writing about bodies — we’re creating new possibilities. We’re showing that all people deserve to be seen and celebrated. And that change resonates with readers of all sizes who are ready to claim their own stories.
