Fat Kids Never Die is the true story of my journey through life in a fat body in the conservative south. The play follows myself as I navigate all the memories that are woven into the fabric of my closet. I paint a picture of how existing in a fat body can color, or in my case, completely control how someone exists in the world. I wanted a place to have an honest conversation of how I went from a chubby kiddo to one of the youngest patients in the state of Arkansas to have elective weight loss surgery. As a fat person, people don’t like when you talk about your own weight and journey with your own body. I felt like I had never had the ability to talk about the mental gymnastics and psychological and sometimes physical damage that is required to turn a fat body into a “good” body. I used this process to work through just how profoundly my fat body has affected my life and begin the process of finding harmony between the woman I am and the body I live in.

This play was written and performed as a final project for the class, “Creating a One Person Show” at the University of Arkansas under the advisement of Michael Landman.