This was the most important book I’ve read this year. I am not a parent but think it’s an important read for everyone especially those that interact with kids. I appreciated the candid conversations and many parents, kids, and others interviewed for this book.

Kudos to Virginia for reading her own audiobook—I always love and truly appreciate when authors are able to read their own books (though I understand there are many reasons why many aren’t able to).

I did wish that this book spent a bit more time discussing solutions and conversations with kids. There definitely is good advice that is summarized at the end of the book but I think even more examples and ideas would be helpful. I think it can be challenging to sort out how to truly dismantle our internalized fat bias and how to have conversations that go against everything that society demonstrates to us but it is both somewhat anxiety producing and so critical.

It was a bit too triggering for me at this moment in my life. 

I want to marry this book. For everyone with a body - I don't even have kids in my life and I found it soooo educational and uplifting and comforting. I recommend this to EVERYONE!

Every single person, not just parents should read this.

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. 

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.