There is no shortage of research on fat people—their medical classification, what motivates them to lose weight, what hinders their progress, and why they should change. With two in three adults in the US being overweight or obese, it makes sense that this is a well-saturated area of study (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). However, this research is solely medical; it ignores the social aspects of weight, including the body-positive community, which is empowered by their body image or not interested in losing weight. This project focuses on the socio-cultural aspects of weight and body image—not the medical—and its relationship to storytelling and community building, since this community lacks a way to connect through stories. The stories in this project are user-generated and holistic, sharing both the positive and negative impacts of weight loss. Although the majority of the US population is overweight, this is not represented in the media. This project strives to expand the stories told around and about fat people.
"This project focuses on the socio-cultural aspects of weight and body image—not the medical—and its relationship to storytelling and community building, since this community lacks a way to connect through stories."
To design a space for this community, I first conducted a design thinking session to understand my audience. Using these results, I developed a transmedia storytelling project, including a website, social media campaign, and a podcast. The design thinking session generated topics of discussion, pain points, and stories to be featured on the podcast. The data collected from the design thinking session also included a survey, which was used to generate a strategic language guide—a detailed outline of the preferred terminology for overweight people. Previous studies identified preferred terms for overweight people, though those results were exclusively based on treatment-seeking or weight-loss-seeking respondents (Wadden and Didie, 2003). Moreover, no research has been conducted solely with college-aged female participants. Therefore, this project is an important part of the larger conversation around weight and body image. I hope that this transmedia storytelling campaign connects audiences across multiple platforms, inspires a more complete understanding of the fat community, and address the lesser-told aspects of weight loss.
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