Episode #80: Body Positivity and Health At Every Size: PART TWO with Pheobe Wahl

Grace and Alvina talk with special guest Phoebe Wahl about body positivity, fat phobia, and what the Health at Every Size movement is all about. Welcome to PART 2 of this episode with a very special guest.

*Happenings* You can purchase Grace's 2021 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon trilogy calendar here!

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“How have you been?”

Alvina has been busy enjoying her last days of vacation up in Vermont. She’s still living up there temporarily. She’s been hiking, biking, swimming, ad binge watching the reality show Selling Sunset!

Grace has been busy trying to finish up her painting and adjusting to her new schedule. Disney’s Mulan movie was recently released. Grace wrote the prequal to the movie with her book, “Mulan: Before the Sword.” The move was released amidst some controversy regarding the lead actress in the film. This has been weighing heavy on Grace’s mind. She was planning to have a backyard screening of the event and coincide it with moon festival. However, someone posted about the controversy on her Facebook page and questioned wether anyone should even watch it. The actress in Mulan spoke out about protestors in China. She is supporting the police and is anti-democracy. Should one support Asian actresses in lead Hollywood roles and see the movie, or boycott the movie because one person in it has political views people disagree with? The movie is being critiqued for many reasons. Grace is caught up in her own double standard.

Back with Phoebe….

Pheobe talks about the “critical internal voice” and what to tell yourself when the negative self-talk begins about your body. She suggests sitting with those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Ask yourself why you have them, where did they come from, and reflect back on the culture of body image. She talks about acknowledging your own think privilege in this society. What makes fat a bad thing, who said that? Are we harming bodies bigger than our own by being so negative?

Grace asks Pheobe how all of this has effected her work as a writer. After have a huge hand in creating society. Backyard Fairies was a chubbier character. “I think it’s changed my approach to character design.” She always wonders if she should make her books diverse like many authors wonder, “is it my place to do this?” She takes the points of diversity that are personal to her and brings them to the table like body diversity!

 Grace asks, “How would you suggest how to incorporate body positivity in books?” Phoebe suggests looking critically at why you choose to design the characters the way that you do. Try coming up with and imagining the characters as a different shape and size. How does that feel? What does it do for you and the story? She says, “think critically about choices that we make subconsciously influenced by fat phobic culture is one of the most important ways” to incorporate body positivity. Having a thin character always in the book as the default is problematic.

Phoebe guides us through her life after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design also where Grace graduated from! They talk about e-commerce and life and then having a store front property in times of the pandemic. Check out the Phoebe Wahl shop!

What are we grateful for?

Alvina is grateful for the movie that came out on Friday called “All Together Now”. It is based on a young adult novel that she edited. (All Together Now) Matthew Quick also wrote Sorta Like a Rockstar. She’s planning to watch it with her boyfriend and his father who watch movies every Saturday night.

Grace is grateful for the school pod that she has for her daughter now and that the weather is finally cooler.

Phoebe is grateful that she can still do work during the pandemic that she enjoys and that she and her family all have a safe place to live.

2- Minute Book Reviews with Alison Morris:

Alison Morris reviews another new graphic novel coming out on October 13th.

This is a wholly unique book about identity, self acceptance, family love, and happy endings. Inspired by the author’s own teenage experiences as a queer, American Vietnamese cartoonist.”

Alison Morris is a nationally recognized children's book buyer with an infectious enthusiasm for reading and 20 years' experience matching books to readers. As the Senior Director of Title Selection for nonprofit First Book, she oversees the curation of children’s and young adult books on the First Book Marketplace, hand-selecting a diverse range of titles that speak to and address the needs of kids in underserved communities, with a keen eye to inclusion, authenticity, and kid-appeal. She previously served as Senior Editor at Scholastic Book Clubs, Children's Book Buyer for Wellesley Booksmith and The Dartmouth Bookstore, and was the founding blogger of the ShelfTalker children’s book blog for Publishers Weekly. She'll be joining us from her home near Washington, DC where she spends LOTS of time discussing books with her husband, illustrator and graphic novelist Gareth Hinds.