If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. I think everyone should read it, but especially anyone who spends a lot of time around children, or may have kids one day. This book both explains and debunks a lot of myths around fatness and fatphobia, and also gives practical advice and tools for how to talk about and address these issues. When I was only a quarter of the way through this book, I knew I was going to ask my husband to read it, which I almost never do. It just feels like such a crucial starting place for any conversations around food, weight, and body image, especially with regard to issues we're definitely going to run into when raising kids. I'm so grateful for this book and couldn't recommend it enough. 

 This is such an important book about the impact diet culture and anti-fat bias can have on children and teenagers. It's a book that both educates on the topic and offers some suggestions for how to combat the anti-fat bias kids are being exposed to.

Content warning: eating disorders, fat phobia

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I started following Virginia Sole-Smith's work after having my daughter. Pregnancy and childbirth led me to start reexamining my own relationship with my body and I really want to do better for my daughter so that she doesn't have the same baggage that I do. Sole-Smith's newsletter, Burnt Toast, has been instrumental for me because it is exhaustively researched, smart, and empathetic while still challenging you to think through the myriad ways your own fatphobia influences your views on bodies, diet, exercise, and so much more. When I saw that her newest book would be focused on kids and parenting, I immediately pre-ordered it.

This book is fantastic. It is exhaustively researched but approachable, deftly weaving data and analysis with Sole-Smith's own personal reflections and interviews of kids and their families. Even though she's pulling back the veil on a lot of uncomfortable truths about how ingrained fatphobia is in our culture and how it influences the way we interact with the kids in our lives (and the world in general), Sole-Smith's tone is one of empathy and encouragement. This book covers a lot of ground-- diets, eating disorders, sports, puberty, the intersection of racism and sexism with fatphobia, parental pressures, and social media-- while never feeling overwhelming or inaccessible. 

Anyone who interacts with children should read this book, but I also think there is a lot in here for anyone who wants to think through these issues-- everyone, after all, has been a kid. I appreciated this book from the perspective of a parent, but I also found it really helpful in helping me reflect on my own childhood (and adult) experiences. Highly recommend.

If you have ever taken a public health or nutrition class, or you have ever seen a Chloe Ting or blogilates workout video on your YouTube, I urge you to read this book. If you are raising a child, or will soon, I also urge you to read this. Everyone should have to read the first three chapters, as the false equivalence between weight and health is unpacked really well. The book also has a strong ending, seems well-researched, and for the most part, incorporates good cases of the topic at hand. The social media chapter doesn’t always flow and is the most surface level, which is disappointing. The chapter about athletics loses its thread from the rest of the book, in my opinion. Still—this book is an important and timely work of nonfiction, and I recommend it highly to all.