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My segment on Good Morning America got postponed last week, but it aired today! It also featured Marianne Kirby, blogger of The Rotund and co-author of Lessons From the Fat-o-sphere. If you missed it, you’re in luck: they posted the video (and an accompanying article) on the ABC website. It’s obviously heavily edited, but I’m pretty happy with the results. Let me know what you think!
“Young, Fat and Fabulous Say No to Yo-Yo Diets”
I saw the segment and I agree that it was heavily edited. Though I loved everything you both had to say it seemed like the interview was more filler than substance. I loved everything that you and Marianne had to say its to bad that the reporter did not do a better job of displaying what the size acceptance movement is all about.
Glen
I loved it! WEll except for the wrap up by Diane which had footage of headless fatties and the “of course they will eventually die of FAT”
they did not do a good job of actually explaining what the size acceptance movement is, but that isn’t anything to do with you.. i think they knew what story they wanted to give and you did the best with that bias.. you looked great and natural on cam.. and BEAUTIFUL HELLO
I saw the segment on GMA this morning, and I think they dropped the ball. Both you and Marianne are beautiful, intelligent and amazing young women, but GMA seemed more concerned that you were not dieting anymore – almost as if they wanted to say…can you believe that? I kept on hoping that Juju would comment on the fact that you both were fabulous *and* fat, but Diane started talking. The world needs to realize that you can be both fat and fabulous! It took me too long to realize that. There’s so much negative associated with fat, finally something positive and they can’t report it quite right.
In anycase, so happy I found your blog. You have a great look, and I’m learning how to put one together. Im thinking I might be able to pick up some tips!
Great job! My only question is: Why aren’t you on the Notes from the Fatosphere feed? We need more voices like yours.
I think you handled the questions very well and you did a great job overall, but I felt like fat people were still being misrepresented in that GMA special. I also feel like they were subliminally trying to put us down in subconscious way. The end of the segment pissed me off when they talked about diabetes, high blood pressure, and etc. I mean we can pretty much be fat, healthy, and still have an active lifestyle, but whatever. You looked gorgeous on camera though and I love your accent lol.
I agree with most of the criticisms posted here, but they tried and that counts for something. I wish they’d let you and Marianne talk more, you guys were really fantastic.
Hey
Just wanted to let you know you did an awesome job, though GMA didn’t really get the message across having some one as fabulous as you on tv should be some kind of proof!
Congrats! I am mad you have surf the channel on your toolbar. I can’t blame you though… I love that website.
Hi, I just watched your GMA segment, and wanted to stop by and say I thought you and Marianne did a great job, despite the obvious heavy editing. I really like your blog too, I think I may have to stop by here on a regular basis!
This was AWESOME, and I want to smack all those naysayers in the ABC comment forum.
Hi, I saw the segment from GMA. I’m so glad this IDEA of just accepting yourself exists! I am extremely thin, and all of my full figured friends tell me Oh you can eat all you want because you won’t gain a pound. It irritates me to no end because as an underweight person, I am always trying to gain 20 pounds, but my metabolism is so high thatI cannot keep weight on. I’ve accepted that I probably will not fit into a size 3 until I reach my early thirties. I just wish everyone one could accept themselves. And by the way, you look absolutely gorgeous! I would not even think that you were “overweight” It really comes down to a healthy lifestyles no matter your size. There are thin people who are very unhealthy because they take their high metabolism and junk food it until they have deadly heath issus too.
It’s all about Self Love and acceptance.
It was so great to see!
I just saw you on ABC. This is really awesome!!!!!
Thanks!!
I gained alot of weight after a car accident and head injury. I’ve been feeling bad about it, but lots of guys think I’m sexy. No boyfriend yet, but that’s been a lifelong issue even when I was much smaller.
PS Lady Sanders–I gained lots of weight in grad school eating Ben and Jerry’s daily. Accept yourself, but if you actually want to gain, frequent consultations with Ben & Jerry’s are key. 😉
Gabi! Hello!
Thanks for a great blog!
Keep using your superpowers for good!
Marilyn
YOU ROCK.
That was a great segment. It’s wonderful to see the fatosphere really breaking out beyond the blogosphere and youtube now.
Great Job!
Girl, your outfit looked fantastic and you just looked great in general. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for being so awesome. You’re an inspiration!
I thought you looked wonderfully natural on camera – as well as totally gorgeous. I think the segment was certainly a step in the right direction, though I thought they could’ve done a better job getting across what fat acceptance is all about.
Thanks for doing that Gabi, you truly are an inspiration!
surfed my way over here and wanted to say a few things. this is truly a reckless and irresponsible mindset.
1. being obese is not healthy. you may be healthy now, but in 5 or 10 years, you will have serious health issues. this is based on solid, solid research (www.cdc.gov/obesity/causes/health.html) and personal experience (my grandmother passed away recently after battling all of these health problems brought on by obesity).
2. i wholeheartedly agree that yo-yo dieting is harmful, so why not adapt a healthy lifestyle? seriously, wonderbread in your refrigerator? eat all the fruits and vegetables you want, nuts, seeds, lean protein, rarely grains and exercise!
3. you say “‘I think healthy is not just about your body,’ Gregg said. ‘It’s about your mental and spiritual well-being. At my lowest weight, I was the most sick I’ve been mentally and physically in my life. I lost hair, I was having night sweats.'” if that’s truly the case, you’ve never been eating properly and exercising.
4. being skinny and smoking cigarettes is not healthy just as being obese is not healthy. this has nothing to do with being ‘fat’ or having ‘curves’– obesity is an epidemic. many children will grow up with parents that don’t understand proper eating and exercising habits and will thus offer their children no choice in making healthy decisions.
please, take off the blinders and recognize that you have the power within you to change and stop ‘accepting’ your unhealthiness.
1. wrong
2. that wasn’t my fridge
3. that was poorly edited. at the time, i was eating properly and exercising. i was sick because of another reason, and i was pointing out in the interview how i think it’s funny that people would say “you look so great and healthy,” when in actuality i was the most sick i had ever been.
4. i don’t have kids.
Hi, Gabi, about what “paleface” said, Would you be considered obese or just overweight? Because isn’t there a difference? I don’t understand why people cannot see that you can be healthy at various sizes.
wrong? so you deny the CDC and the National Heart, Blood and Lung institute?
the fact that you don’t have kids only proves your myopic view. do you ever plan on having children? what about the example you set for girls that surf to your site? by becoming a public persona, you have a responsibility, and you’re shirking that responsibility. i truly hope you abandon your delusions and accept the this responsibility to be healthy. peace and love!
paleface, the only example i set to girls who read my site is that you can be fat and fashionable. i don’t tell people how to live their lives, that’s their own choice. my blog focuses on fat fashion, period. hopefully you abandon your delusions and prejudices about fat people. peace and love!
Paleface, if Gabi eats healthily, exercises regularly and has been given a clean bill of health by her doctor like the report said, then nobody can accuse her of setting a bad example. Starving herself to become thinner would be setting a terrible example, not to mention be damaging to her health.
It’s incredibly narrow-minded to assume that she’s unhealthy because of her size, we all come in different shapes and sizes and that’s what society needs to get its head around.
@Paleface, my obese “unhealthy” great-aunt passed away at 85 years old. Still living unaided at home, and yet my borderline-anorexic father died at 55 years old surrounded by medical staff trying to figure out why someone “so healthy” was dying of cancer. My suspicion is that it was all the artificial sweeteners he consumed to stay thin.
I’m not obese myself but I’m sick of people like you feeling that you have a right to talk about other people’s (usually womens) bodies.
Do you HONESTLY believe that bullying and belittling people about their weight helps IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM? Because it doesn’t. Trying to shame people into doing anything just shows that you don’t understand human psychology at all.
Gabi’s site helps plus-sized people feel better about themselves, which in turn promotes a better attitude towards looking after themselves mentally and physically. If they lose weight, fine. If they don’t, that should be fine too.
Just because someone is overweight or obese doesn’t mean that they don’t have a right to contribute to society.
60% of Americans are plus-sized whether you like it or not they’re not going away.Gabi’s site allows them to think about fashion and looking damn hot at any size.
Please go and preach your messages of bigotry somewhere else.
Hi Gabi. I saw you on GMA and i thought you presented the point very well, that some people will naturally weigh more than others. Size does not determine health, nor beauty.
You are suddenly getting a lot of notice from your GMA appearance. Some people are bound to be negative. Forget them. You are a lovely woman, and not unhealthily fat. shoot, the recommended weight for my height put me at obese in a size 14. whatever.
thank you
Bravo! You did beautifully. Despite the poor editing of the piece, you and Marianne both came across as such great advocates for FA. Thanks for having the hutzpah to put yourself out there and share your experience. I hope it brings even more women to your site, which totally deserves the attention. You’re my hero!
Hi Gabi! I just saw the interview, which I realize was heavily edited, and wanted to thank you. It’s hard in a world that screams at us that we aren’t pretty unless we are a size two. You and Marianne are wonderful in helping people know that being who we are is okay.
I remember I had gone to a Doctor for the first and the last time for a female medical issue. I sat there describing the problem. And there he is looking at me like he was listening and taking notes. What he was actually writing down was Obese. He was too dumb to realize I could read upside down. And worse he didn’t care what I was really in for. All he cared about was the fact that I wasn’t the correct BMI scale.
Random fact, the man who created the BMI scale never believed that it was to determine a person’s obesity level. I mean professional athletes are considered Obese or even Morbidly Obese by these standards that are forced on us.
We have to stop allowing the media, which would include part of GMA, determine what we find healthy. I have great blood pressure, my sugar is fantastic, and my cholesterol level is middle of the road on what is considered good levels. I’m 205 lbs.
Irony, my grandmother who was a size zero died when she was 55 from a massive heart attack. My other grandmother who is considered morbidly obese is going strong at 68. Take that Diane Sawyer.
Keep up the good work! And thank you for reminding girls that we aren’t cookie cutter cutouts. That we are beautiful no matter what we weigh. And that we can dress fabulous no matter what.
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