Like never before, teen lit is alive with plus-size characters who take on their school tormentors and get the guy, soaking up self-esteem as football heroes and big-girl models.
While fat may not be the new vampire, the uptick comes at just the right time for young readers. Childhood obesity is epic while a large, loud and proud fat-acceptance movement advocates good health at any size over doomed diets, food obsessions and body shame.
In titles that include "Looks," "Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies" and "This Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous," young people with meat on their bones are front and center in at least two dozen new books out since last year, rather than the usual ugly-duckling best friend or neighbor. Many of the stories conclude without significant weight loss, a huge breakthrough for some young fans.
"There weren't many characters I could relate to when I was younger," said Elizabeth Sterling, an 18-year-old nursing student who writes a blog called Diary of a Fat Teenager. "The message that would come across to my young insecure brain would be, 'In order to do what they do, you need to look like them.' "
Allen Zadoff's September release "Food, Girls and Other Things I Can't Have" relies on wit and cutting dialogue to tell the story of a rare overweight boy protagonist. Zadoff, 42, said he was obese growing up like his character 15-year-old Andrew Zansky.
"I was not just overweight. I was struggling with an eating disorder. I got larger and larger over time. No amount of dieting would fix the problem for me. I would lose weight and then gain it all back," Zadoff said. Out of his struggle came his acclaimed adult memoir in 2007, "Hungry: Lessons Learned on the Journey from Fat to Thin."
The upcoming book, his first for young readers, features Andrew, a high school sophomore who weighs 306.4 pounds. He dreads squeezing into his classroom desk and rubs off the very public size 48 lettering on the outer waist of Levi's he can barely zip. He lusts for an insider's life and makes it as a jock, only to readjust his priorities.
"When I was in my sophomore year in high school, the coach came up to me and asked me if I had ever considered playing football," Zadoff said. "At the time I was insulted. I knew he was just asking me because I was big, so I said no. Andrew says yes. As a result, his life path takes a radical turn. I wrote the book to kind of explore how would my life had been different if I had said yes instead of no."
