I'm sure a ton of people tuned in to watch NBC's production of "Hairspray: Live!" this week. And I'm sure that a lot of you rooted for our young heroine Tracy as she danced her way to the top. But for me, this production means a whole lot more than TV dancing and hearing bells.
I grew up fat. I don't quite remember when I looked at myself and said, "Wow, I let myself go," but it's all I really remember being. I had no problem with this, but the people around me did. I remember when I was in 4th grade, and a kid called me fat in front of the whole class. I had known that being fat was bad, but I never quite knew that I was fat, per say. The only reason I had heard the word was from TV, from movies about people who magically transformed from fat to beautiful woman, or at the butt of jokes on shows that I watched with my Dad. Because of this, fat was synonymous with bad, with ugly. After that moment, I remember being ashamed of myself, hiding myself in sweatshirts and praying to whoever would listen that I could be thin. That I could be pretty.
I first watched Hairspray when I was in 7th grade. I stumbled across the movie and had a few hours to kill so I went for it. At the time, the only movies/tv shows about fat girls that I had been exposed to were all about becoming skinny, getting pretty, etc. Hairspray was the first time I had ever been able to entertain the thought that maybe I didn't have to change. Maybe my size wasn't the only thing that defined my personality.
And boy, did that rock my world.
Hairspray shows how important it is to remind fat boys and girls that they don't need to change in order to be successful. We have to show them that they can dance on TV, or become the President, or just do whatever they want to. I grew up thinking that I had to be thin to do anything with my life.
I was lucky enough to be exposed to a show about a fat girl before I gave up on myself. But not everyone is as lucky as I was. So please, let's use Hairspray as an example and start showing kids that they can be fat and still be successful.
