March 19, 2025 • 45 mins
Fatphobia and fat shaming are so deeply entrenched in society that traditionally, only a narrow set of beauty standards were represented in romance. Luckily, more and more authors, seeing how unrealistic this is, are transforming the literary landscape by writing curvy, confident, and complex characters that more closely represent their readers. In this episode of the podcast, Alesia sits down with Aimee from Curvy Girls Read Romance as they take a deep dive into body representation in romance books, specifically, celebrating authors who write real, authentic love stories with plus-sized characters.
Aimee has been a romance reader for a few years now and, in the last year, has been solely focused on plus-sized protagonists. She wanted to see more realistic body types reflected, to see herself in the stories she spent so much time reading. Now Aimee has built a small community on Instagram and surrounded herself with people looking for the same thing. Sharing book recs, trope recs, and author recs and hoping to normalize body positivity.
In this episode, we're discussing:
- Finding books with plus-sized representation, both on the cover and within the pages.
- Be cautious when using the word “curvy,” as it can often be misconstrued.
- Ways in which plus-size romances go beyond the weight of the character, giving more representation to multifaceted people.
- Representation has evolved significantly in the last 10 years, with authors being more conscientious of how they write these characters.
- Indie authors are the ones leading the charge in body-positive storytelling.
Whether you're a size 2 or 22, romance is about connection, passion, and seeing yourself reflected in stories that celebrate every curve, every stretch mark, and every beautiful, complex human experience. Today's conversation isn't just about books—it's about breaking down barriers and expanding what love looks like.
CONNECT WITH CURVY GIRLS READ ROMANCE:
BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:
CC Monroe (Amazon)
Sloane Spencer (Amazon)
Sleet Kitten by S.J. Tilly (Amazon)
Kat Baxter (Amazon)
Mia Brody (Amazon)
Anna P. (Amazon)
Nicola Davidson (Amazon)
Running list of books mentioned (Doc)
Thank you for listening to the We Read Smut Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag @WeReadSmut. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast.
Connect with Alesia:
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This podcast was produced by Galati Media.
Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alesia Galati (00:00):
Just like any other representation, fat and
(00:03):
curvy representation is such animportant part of romance.
Today, we're talking with Amy ofcurvy girls read romance on why
it's important for us to havethis representation and some
incredible recommendations foryou based on what genre you
enjoy most. We'll also be sureto have a link to that full list
(00:25):
in the show notes and thedescription if you are looking
for any of thoserecommendations.
Hi, Amy, I was so excited tohave you on and you are the face
behind curvy girls read romance.
When I started following youraccount, and I was like, Oh my
(00:47):
gosh, yes, we need to befriends. This is gonna be great.
So if you could start by tellingeveryone a bit about your
reading journey, especially asyour adult reading journey goes,
Unknown (01:00):
I found my way to romance in grad school because I
just desperately needed to readsomething that was not a
textbook or a journal article orsomething like that. So I'm a
historian, so I started withlike historical mystery, and
then from there went to likehistorical romance, which will
always be like one of myfavorites, I realized it's not
(01:23):
for everybody. But then fromthere, I went into contemporary
and paranormal. And for like,the month of October, I did a
bunch of monster romancereadings, which was really fun,
nice. But then, you know, as Iwas reading with historicals, in
particular, there are very fewplus size in historicals,
especially. And I think what Ifound more like with
(01:46):
traditionally published authors,they'll tend to have one per
series, one like, just for thatrepresentation, there's one plus
size person per series,especially with traditionally
published authors, it was hardto find them. I wanted to see
myself represented in the booksthat I was reading, and so I
(02:07):
started seeking out specificallyplus size heroines to start. And
now I'll read anybody who's likea plus size protagonist. That
sort of led to my like, jump outof historical and into
contemporary. Just because thereare so few, I was able to
compile, like a list of somehistorical authors who are
starting to do this more. Butyeah, that's sort of how that
(02:31):
came to be. And then as Istarted to compile this list on
my goodread shelves andeverything, I thought, well, if
I'm looking for this, someoneelse must be looking for this.
So that's when I started theBookstagram account, and just
went from there. I think thatplus size representation is so
(02:52):
important, especially with howsocietally plus size folks are
viewed. I recently was editing aclient's podcast, and I wanted
to throw this woman out
Alesia Galati (03:06):
just like, Nope, this episode is terrible because
you had a lot of like opinionson people's weight, and if
you're not sleeping well atnight, or if you're not the
weight that you want to be, thenit's probably because of your
mindset. And I was like, oh, no,you're You're the problem, lady,
yeah, and yeah. And so we see alot of that, and a lot of
(03:28):
opinions about what someonelooks like being a
representation of theirhealthiness. And I'm using bunny
ears here for people who arelistening and can't see me and
think that it's such a hugeproblem. So I think that it is
important that we see plus sizecharacters in love, being loved,
(03:49):
not despite their weight ordespite what they look like, but
also because of just who theyare and their love interests.
Seeing the roles and being like,I love all of it, and I love it.
We're seeing that a lot more inthe romances, at least the ones
I've been reading where there'sa plus size character. You can
(04:10):
from one of the other characterspoint of view, they'll mention,
I can see the stretch marks onher legs, and I just yeah, it's
all up on them. And I'm justlike, yeah, yeah. What are your
thoughts on all of that?
Unknown (04:24):
I absolutely agree. And I think there's also, like, the
fat phobia and fat shaming is sodeeply entrenched in society and
in romance as well. I did a posta few months back about how I go
about and asking other peoplehow they go about finding
specifically plus sized heroinesor protagonists in general. I
(04:47):
said, I really like when someonedoes an Instagram post with the
micro tropes, and I can see it,you know that it says plus size
heroin, or it'll say Husky hero,or something like that. But then
at the same time, I would getfriends. Frustrated like this
shouldn't have to be singled outbecause it is about more than
weight. And so it's like writingthis fine line between making it
(05:09):
easier to find these charactersand then not wanting them to
have to be singled out by theirweight. And then it sort of went
into this discussion of plussize rep not taking place on
cover. So even if the romance isabout a plus size hero or
heroine, the cover doesn'treflect that whatsoever. And so
I did some posts like, all ofthese are books with plus size
(05:32):
heroines, but none of them arereflected on the covers. And I
did other ones later about hereare ones that actually have plus
size rep. And like you said, Ohmy god, she has stretch marks.
And you can like, it's just sonice to be represented on that.
I remember the first cover thatI absolutely fell in love with
(05:52):
was curves for days by LauraLaura Moore, something like
that. And it just has thisbeautiful, curvaceous woman on
the front, and it's just her,and she looks just so confident.
And it was just like, it was thefirst one that I really was
like, Oh my God, thisrepresentation is awesome. So
now every few months, I'll doposts like, Here are more
(06:15):
authors who are doing this plussize rep on their covers. And
from there, people were saying,okay, you know, I go to romance
IO, and I'll look up a specificauthor, and then you can select
heroin and curvy heroin, andthat's a way to do it. But it's
also sometimes not as accurate.
I'm not sure what their processis, but, like, I've gotten
(06:37):
wrecks from there, and then theyweren't plus sized. I also
sometimes message the authorsdirectly, and I'm like, Hey, is
this a plus size heroine? Andthey'll let me know, oh, she's
mid sized. Or, you know, thisone's not. But I have this book
that is, which is reallyhelpful, and most authors are
really great with that. Then Ihad one author who wrote a plus
size character in an upcomingrelease, okay, she looked plus
(07:01):
sized on the cover. And so Iwanted to write to verify,
because none of her promotionalmaterials specified that this
was a plus size character. Andso I wrote, and I was saying,
I'm just wondering if this is aplus size character. I you know,
I'd like to feature it, if so?
And she said, I've been told notto market this as plus sized,
(07:23):
but this character is, she ismore reflective of realistic
body types. And like, I thankedher, and I did a post on it
later. I didn't name her becauseI wasn't trying to put someone
on blast. I wanted to talkabout, like, the discourse. And
I was like, you know, I'm notgoing to end up reading this
book, but I thought about thisall afternoon, and it's
(07:47):
incredibly frustrating to seethat even if someone is trying
to write this, they feel like itneeds to be concealed. It was
just so disheartening. But atthe same time, when I did that
post, so many authors cameforward, and they're like, I
write unapologetically fatwomen, plus size women, curvy
women, however, or, you know, Iwrite plus size men. I write
(08:12):
these Husky heroes, and it wasjust like the discourse we had
in that comment section all day.
It made me feel so much betterafter feeling so shitty after
that, like really dishearteninginteraction. So finding these
types of protagonists, you haveto do quite a bit of work for
it, unless someone is willing toput it on their marketing, which
(08:32):
we're learning. You know, itfeels like one step forward, two
steps back. So we see someauthors are really end of body
positivity and others, they'lldo it almost like, Well, to me,
it felt like tokenism. I'm goingto write this person, and she's
plus size, but we're not goingto say anything about that. It's
just really difficult trying tonavigate that sometimes. So,
Alesia Galati (08:59):
yeah, I know that I've seen very similarly with
books that maybe have what looklike a browner person on there,
or maybe it's showing them as Bor they'll describe them as more
olive tone. And I'm like, whatethnicity are they?
Unknown (09:19):
I feel like I need more thing,
Alesia Galati (09:24):
not at all that could be Italian, like, or,
right, you know? Like, what isit? Yeah, so I think that it
one. I love that you approachthe author, and that's something
that I've been doing as well.
Like, hey, I want to promotebipoc authors. Feel free to say
you don't want to answer, or youdon't feel comfortable answering
100% but I would like to do aLatinx post, and I believe
(09:46):
you're Latinx, so please let meknow if that's accurate or
inaccurate. Like I want to makesure that I represent you
properly, right? Everyone I havereached out to has been more
than welcoming of saying, Ohyes, I am or. I do identify that
as that, or I I identify asthis, and I don't identify as
Latinx, and I'm like, okay,cool, that helps me right, be
able to one promote them in theright way and not do a
(10:08):
disservice to my followers ofmisrepresenting these people.
But then also, I think that it'sso important as readers and as
people who want to read morediversely, that we do follow the
accounts that are taking thetime and effort to actually get
shit about this stuff right,like your account, like our
(10:30):
account, where we are going theextra step to say yes, even
though these covers might notshow that these characters are
curvy, or maybe it's a colorfulfloral cover, or they're
illustrated characters. We don'tsay cartoon characters,
illustrated characters, thenthese are actually curvy, mid
size or plus size women or Huskyheroes, or whatever it is,
(10:55):
right? It's good that we havepeople that are doing the work,
and I think that it gives evenless of an excuse for people who
are like, Oh, I can't findanything. You literally just
need to search.
Unknown (11:07):
Yeah, there are ways of finding when it
comes to like terminology, Ifeel fine using the term fat. I
do not see the word fat as a badthing, as an insult whatsoever.
And so I try to integrate that alittle bit more in my posts.
Most people use plus size, andI'm fine with doing that. The
term curvy, I love it, but it'salso it can be misused, because
(11:30):
a lot of times authors will sayshe had curves in all the right
places, and they like came intothe tiniest waist. So, yeah,
you're like, Okay, this is alsonot very realized.
No, are wetalking about Dolly Parton here?
I mean, it's just the idea of,like curves in all the right
(11:53):
places. So curve is somethingthat can be absolutely misused.
And I fully realized that when Ichose my name for the Instagram
profile, but more peopleidentified with that. But I also
think we have to be reallycareful with it, and now that
we're starting to see a littlebit more representation of plus
size men, we have to figure outwhat men are comfortable being
(12:14):
called, because the idea ofHusky heroes that can have that
same idea of curvy like, whatdoes that mean? Are men going to
want to be called plus size?
I've been such a feminist for solong, and I like, I I don't
always be like what the menthink on this, but it is the
representation of thosecharacters in the stories. So
(12:37):
obviously that makes sense, buttrying to condition ourselves to
figure out what is going to belike, the appropriate
terminology in that sense too.
So,
Alesia Galati (12:45):
oh, that's so interesting. Yeah, I even think
about so I have boys, and theyare not in the Husky men's
section or the Husky boyssection, but when I think of
like even my brothers as theywere growing up, you would have
the difference of the size 12kids, or the 12 size Husky kids,
(13:05):
and where it has a little moreroom to it, right? And so that
might be a term that they'relike, that seems plus for
women's. Of those are the plussizes. Those are the Husky
sizes. And so it could have anegative connotation, and that's
not even something that I'veeven considered. So thank you
for bringing that and, yeah, Ithink that it's really important
(13:25):
that we're considering all ofthese things mid size. We're
specifically talking in USsizes, right? I understand that
there are other sizes in othercountries that you're like,
Wait, what are you even talkingabout? Right? Like the fact that
mid size can be anything from a10, which makes no sense to me
(13:46):
at all, Oh, my God, to a 16 oran 18, like I feel like 18. Then
you start getting into the morefat sizes, or the plus sizes,
where people think, oh, mid sizeis anywhere from 10 to 1618, and
then 18 and up is more plussize. And it's like, okay, who
(14:07):
made those rules?
Unknown (14:08):
First of all, yeah, there's no like definition, and
so everybody's scale isdifferent. It's completely
arbitrary. Just the entire
Alesia Galati (14:19):
Yeah, I can even think of one book I read. I
believe it was a book byAlexandra house. She writes a
lot of plus size women and curvywomen into her stories. I
absolutely love that. And shementioned, I believe she
mentioned the size as a 22 andin my head, I was like, I'm
(14:39):
trying to think of like peoplein my life that I maybe know her
a size 22 to be able to imaginethat I am personally like a 1618
imagining this character. But Iwas like, who cares? She is
getting dicked down. Let's keepgoing
Unknown (14:57):
like she's living her best life. That's enough. Other
thing, like, I love when thesize is mentioned and it's high
double digits, but at the sametime, I'm like, shouldn't have
to do this. CeCe Monroe, shejust had a dark romance release,
and she's like, this is a size26 heroine. And I'm like, great,
get it. I love it. Like, I loveit just for reading purposes. It
(15:22):
helps me visualize better. But Ilove when they do that. I really
do. But yes, I read one thatwas, like, labeled as a curvy
heroine, and then they describedher measurements, and she was
five 960 pounds. That's not plussize that's not curvy. That's
just a purpose. Wow.
Alesia Galati (15:47):
To give reference, I am about 220, and I
am five, five, and I'm a size 16ish, so like to give people a
scale that's four inches
Unknown (16:00):
I am, and, you know, a lot of pounds less than I am.
I'maround, like, 215 220 and then
I'm a size 18, and I'm fivefour, so I'm thinking, Oh, my
God, 160 pounds and you're fivenine. This is like, real fit,
Alesia Galati (16:18):
yes, and then you have to think too about, like,
shape, right? That's somethingthat, for me, personally, has
changed so much, like weightversus shape. As I've gone
through two pregnancies, a lotmore of the my fat is in my
belly and in my butt and myhips, my legs are thick too,
like, and the but that my upperbody is like, All right, we're
(16:39):
fine. My arms, yeah, very fatty.
I've got some rolls on my bag.
But, like, I don't know it's myweight has been so different,
like when I was like, thinkingabout after my first pregnancy,
and being like, 170 and beinglike, Oh my God, I am getting so
fat. And then being like, Man, Iam healthy. I am birthed
children. So much with thisbody, and this body is powerful.
(17:05):
And then being active versusbeing like, I need to lose
weight, or being strong versusbeing like, I need to lose
weight. And so I think one,there's like, so many different
ways that we could take thisconversation, but bringing it
back to like, reading andromance, I think that it's so
important that these charactersare described, and that we don't
(17:28):
have to fluff over what theylook like or if they are curvy
or are plus size, that we don'thave to say, you know, curves in
all the right places just tomake everybody happy. Like, no,
let's get away with that.
Unknown (17:41):
I started highlighting every time an author mentioned
stretch marks in a book, and Ihave a whole shelf now on
Goodreads of all these romancesthat mentioned stretch marks.
And it just makes me so happy.
Like I remember the first time Iread that that was mentioned,
and I was like, Oh my God, thiswas incredible. And it's
something so small, but it justlike that, that representation
(18:02):
matters. That just made my wholeday.
Alesia Galati (18:07):
Yes, oh, it's so good. So what do you think that
some authors maybe could dobetter, or we as readers could
request from authors to dobetter in this realm? Actually,
I was just thinking
Unknown (18:21):
about this last night.
Somebody had done a post onInstagram of like, free
paranormal romances that hadplus size characters, and so I
went and downloaded a bunch ofthem, and I read one of them,
and it was written in 2014 Iactually read it last night. I
DNFed it because I've noticedthat plus size characters
written in the early 2000 plussize characters written now are
(18:45):
incredibly different. So thiswas 2014 and it was the
paranormal romance, like it's aMFM, and they find their faded
mate, and one of them is shockedthat he is attracted to this
plus sized woman, and keepstelling her that she is so not
his type, and he's like, I keepwaiting to be turned off by you.
(19:06):
This is only 10 years old. Itwas horrifying, and so I DNFed
it. It was not for me, but nowfinding authors who do this is
easier because authors who arelike devoted to this cause, they
do it proudly. When I did thatpost that I mentioned a few
(19:30):
weeks ago, LM drew commented,she's wrote, she goes, I write
fat women getting railed, andit's fantastic, my sales don't
suffer because of it. Yes isn'ttagline. I believe, yes, I love
her so much.
Alesia Galati (19:50):
It's the unapologetic that we love,
right? Like, even unapologeticmidsize too, I think is really
good too, because I think therepresentation. One of the
average woman is about mid size.
It is the 16 to 18 size. Likethat is pretty normal, and we're
just not seeing that reflectedin a lot of media. And so to see
(20:12):
that reflected, even lookingokay, we could talk about
bridgerton season two, and howsocietally everybody was like,
oh my goodness, a fat womanbeing the love interest. We
never see this or right therewas a an Instagram personality.
I can't think of his accountright now, but he was
(20:36):
sarcastically saying, Wow, we'venever seen a fat person and a
thin person on media before.
That's crazy. And then he justrolled through all of these,
like pictures of a fat male maincharacter and a very skinny or
(20:58):
attractive female maincharacter. And he was like, wow,
we've never seen that before. Icannot believe it. And it just
kept going. And there were like15 different cartoon shows, real
people's shows, all of thisstuff where it's a fat man in
love with a skinny woman, butnobody bats an eye. And he was
(21:19):
like, why is this foundationallya big deal? Guys? It's not
anything new. Get over it. Yeah.
Unknown (21:28):
Like, nobody in history was fat, going back to
bridgerton, just the idea thatthere was just the one fat
person in the entire socialbook.
Alesia Galati (21:40):
Oh, my God, yes, yes, guys, come on. But that is
something that I don't thinkthat people talk about enough is
people having to eat whateverwas available to them. They
didn't have grocery stores. Theyhad whatever they could make,
whatever they could access. Noone had a Harris Teeter. Like,
(22:03):
go get the groceries that the,you know, the organic foods.
Like, no, it was whatever youhad, is what you had, you know.
And then you've got the richpeople getting all the foods and
the poor people like, look, wegot potatoes. That's all we got.
It's a weird gonna eat thesepotatoes? That's it.
Unknown (22:22):
Yeah, to imagine
Alesia Galati (22:23):
that fat people is only now, no, that is not at
all how
Unknown (22:29):
it works. So I'm a historian. That's my trade.
There's a notion that if youwere fat historically, it meant
you were wealthy. And sure, thisis, you know, likely true if you
have more access to more food,sure, but the idea that there no
(22:52):
fat poor people, no plump poorpeople throughout history, is
also insanity
Alesia Galati (22:59):
for real, like everybody who's poor just has no
food or what? Yeah, it doesn'tmake any sense either. Yeah,
they just don't understand howthis works.
Unknown (23:13):
Think about it. If the foods you have access to are
only grains, and that's thecheapest food too, and that's
all you're going to be able toeat, that's gonna affect you,
depending on
Alesia Galati (23:23):
where you live in the world, what you have access
to, like, there's so manydifferent elements to this that
it is silly that we would lookat history and be like, Nope, it
was just one, one black or whitestatement that encompasses
everybody. It's like, that's nothow it works at all, and that's
not how it works now. So lookingeven deeper than plus size is
(23:46):
really important, that weunderstand that. And this is
something that I feel like I'vebeen having a lot of
conversations about lately, isthat we as humans are so
multifaceted, and I think thatas women, we tend to be viewed
very one sided. You're a mother,you're a sister, you're a
(24:07):
daughter, you're a woman insociety, right? Like, there's
only the one view that we tendto have, or that people tend to
see us as, and then, ergo, wesee ourselves as if we haven't
done work to like, really sitwith ourselves and see what
makes us ourselves and somultifaceted as human beings,
(24:29):
beyond just being, oh, thesecharacters are fat. There's so
many more experiences to thesepeople. How do you feel that
plus size romance isspecifically go beyond just
focusing on the weight andgiving even more representation
to humanity as a society andmultifaceted people. I
Unknown (24:50):
just finished reading Kelly Reynolds her new release
pitches be crazy. It's baseballromance, the second one in her
Rose City Roasters series. 90s,and it's a by hero and a by
heroine, and they're both justthey have no intention of having
children exploring this notionof being child free by choice. I
(25:14):
loved that, and I every time Iread one of Kelly Reynolds
books, I tell her that I wish Icould live in the world she
wrote because she does such agood job of emphasizing mental
health. She does such a good jobof repping neurodiversity and
sexuality. And I just absolutelylove the worlds that she writes
(25:36):
all of her books right now. Ibelieve have plus nice women. I
also recently read settle Myersbeyond the bright lights. It
wasn't published this year, butI read it this year, and it was
the most impactfulrepresentation of grief that
I've ever read. So theprotagonist is a plus size woman
(25:57):
in a small town, and she hadthis great love story with her
fiance, and then he gets cancerand passes away. And she's
obviously devastated, and thenthey're gonna make a movie about
what happened in his life,because he was like this
football star, and then becamethis advocate for cancer
(26:17):
research, and she falls in lovewith the actor who comes to town
to play her fiance, and it'sjust this journey through grief.
I sobbed through it. It's alsothis huge representation of
addiction, because the actor'san addict. And these stories
have so much more than justweight, like it was a heavy
(26:38):
read, but it was so beautifullydone, and he is so obsessed with
her. It's a reverse age gapalso, and he is absolutely gone
for her from the moment theymeet. He like, loves her stretch
marks, and she's so soft andshe's so lush. And so yes, there
is that aspect of, yes, she's aplus size woman, and let's
(27:00):
acknowledge it, but also there'sall this other stuff going on.
Settle Meyer just knocks me offmy feet all the time right now,
for me, she's, like, the mostversatile, because she's got
contemporary she just did somemonster romances. She's got a
dark romance with rival contractkillers. That's so good. And so
she's like dabbling andeverything, and she's so good.
(27:22):
And then Sloan Spencer wasanother one who I'm absolutely
obsessed with lately. It's anmmf romance, and so we get some
bi rep. And one of the heroes isjust absolutely trying to
connect with his identity,because he was adopted as a
child. He's Korean, I believe,but raised by white people, and
(27:44):
he wants to find his culturalidentity, and his parents are
really offended by it. There'salso the other male protagonist,
has PTSD, and then the femaleheroine, yes, she's plus size,
but she's also dealing withgrief over a miscarriage, and so
there's huge mental health repin that. And I just think that
especially books publishedwithin the last maybe not 10
(28:07):
years after last night, butmaybe the last five years, we're
getting so much depth in termsof representation and just lived
experiences. And I think that'swhat it is. It's highlighting,
yes, we get to understand whatthese lived experiences of plus
size people are like, if anauthor mentions boob sweat, I'm
(28:27):
there. If she, you know,mentioned stretch marks, or she
mentioned laying down in yourboobs, go to the side. It's just
realistic. But then you're alsogetting these other lived
experiences that like, yes, fatpeople are fat, but they're also
people that is not the sum oftheir identity. I just have been
really pleased with authors whoare doing this today. I
Alesia Galati (28:52):
could not agree enough. And I think that when
you have things like grief andaddiction and mental health, rep
and so much more. I think thatit really does allow us to have
more of an empathy. And I'mfinding this has to be the
through line through season one,because a lot of these
(29:13):
conversations I'm having are,it's not, oh, wow, it's it's
romance. And even though it'sromance, you're getting this
it's because it's romance. We'regetting all of this depth, and
we're getting so much more tothese characters than just, oh,
they fall in love andeverything's fine like no these
(29:36):
authors are putting in so mucheffort to create a well rounded
story that really does tacklereal issues, and I think can
allow us as readers, whetheryou're fat or not, get a better
empathy for others. And I didmention this on another episode.
(29:56):
I don't know when it's goinglive, but I know myself. Of when
I started reading romance, youknow, I would just read it for
the smut, because we read smut,that's just what I wanted to
read, also exactly. And I wasalso, like, after my second
pregnancy, my libido was reallylow, and that helped me a lot. I
did not want to take any type ofmedications from my doctor. I
(30:19):
didn't want to use any cream. Ijust wanted to be naturally more
lubricated. And this worked forme. And that's okay, right? And
so like, then it got deeper. I'mlearning so much of these
characters, and when I got theautism diagnosis for my son,
being like, well, I've readbooks with autistic main
(30:40):
characters that are close on thespectrum to where he is. I know
what he might be going through.
I might be able to empathize alot better, to be able to bring
him back to center when he feelslike he's spiraling, or find
ways that I can work with him,because I've seen this in books,
and wait a minute, I feel likethat sometimes. Maybe I need to
(31:01):
go get a check with the doctorto the CF. Maybe I am on the
spectrum as well, right? Like,it can teach us so much of not
just ourselves, but also thepeople around us. I can have
that empathy, and I can see itfrom outside of my own lens,
beyond just oh, they're fat andthey have boobs wet here.
Totally get it right. So muchmore to these characters that we
(31:21):
can get, and so much that we asreaders can get from romance
that can honestly heal us inways that I don't think we even
realized when we started reading
Unknown (31:36):
like you, I started for the smut. My anti depression,
anti anxiety, is an SSRI, and itjust absolutely kills your sex
drive. And, hey, look, yeah,free material. And so, yeah,
that's where it started. Thenyou start, you know, looking for
more story. I recently readKatie dugans from the start.
She's a new indie author. Shehas two books out right now, but
(31:58):
from the start, was her firstone. Have you read this one?
Yes, I love that one. So goodNick gets this, like autistic
diagnosis as an adult, and it'sbeen recommended that I go get
an autism type of success as anadult. You know, just trying to
relate to it from thatperspective. But then the first
(32:18):
person she tells is this like,childhood enemy that she had,
and he is just so sweet to her,and he's so, like, accommodating
and accepting of her autism, andshe wants sex lessons because
she wants to be able to, like,have sex with people in a way
that she doesn't want to be toomuch for people, And him telling
(32:40):
her that she's not too much, andhe Oh, my God, he makes a sex
syllabus is the best thing forthat. Let's know he's a
professor too. So likebut and then she always has a
weighted blanket, but she loveswhen he will be her weighted
blanket. And it was these thesestories that people are writing
(33:01):
now. They just, it's so good,it's so good, so much better
than, I guess, what we weregetting 10
Alesia Galati (33:10):
years ago. Yeah, oh man, it's so true. And, I
mean, I love it. I'm here forit. It's such an important
direction that we're taking forsure. What are some other
authors that you're like, reallyenjoying right now?
Unknown (33:27):
I did a list.
I saw your list, and I was like,Oh, I love all of this.
Okay, so I will try. I did areally long one, but I will try
to go through by section. So ifwe start with sports romance, I
guess we'll start with sportsromance. So as I mentioned,
Kelly Reynolds has the Rose CityRoasters series. In both of
(33:49):
those that are out so far, wehave plus size protagonists,
also by Rep and queer rep,really good. And then Mary
Warren has the Glendale Magicseries. It's a hockey series,
and Mary Warren runs fat girlsin fiction, which is a huge
collective on a much more biggerscale than what I do of
(34:10):
highlighting fat girls andfiction. Obviously, Amy award
has the cocky Kingman series.
It's a football romance series,all plus size protagonists. The
second one is like a Taylor andTravis like a retelling, but
with a plus size heroine. Andthen Sloane Spencer's doing. She
started the rugby lover series.
(34:30):
She's working on the second oneof that right now. And the first
one was one of my favorite readsof this whole year. It's a
friends to lovers and a surprisepregnancy one. And then SJ Tilly
has the sleet series, which isso good. It's a hockey one. In
terms of contemporaries, I loveTalia hibberts, the brown
(34:50):
sisters series. They're allthree plus size heroines. And
then Kayla gross, who's dubbedthe queen of smut. She writes.
Is the hottest romance. She'sgot the Cowboys at Nighthawk
series, but then she also has acouple of novellas that came out
this year and last year that areinsanely hot. Oh. Kelsey host
(35:14):
has her Hello series that's likesmall town all plus size
heroines. Mary Warren, who didthe hockey series also has her
Mystic Falls series, LeonorSolis, who is a Latina writer.
I'm half Mexican, so I'm alwayslooking for Latina rep in my
reads also, but she has the cozyLatina billionaire series. If
(35:38):
you're looking for like shorterreads, I like to use them as
palette cleansers between longerreads. Cat Baxter is my absolute
favorite for that. Mia Brody isanother one too. I will say, for
Mia Brody, the covers are neverplus size ramp, which can be
frustrating. And then Anna Pwrites plus size South Asian
(35:59):
characters. They're so good.
Georgina Kirsten, she's a bipocauthor with bipoc heroines and
heroes, and she in her more tolove books she's got. It's a
male romance with a plus sizehero. Danielle Allen's that came
out over the summer, her curvygirl summer. It's part of her
curve series. There are morecoming, also by POC, author and
(36:20):
heroine there. So yeah, thoseare really good ones. Evie
Mitchell is huge for diversity,and she writes shorter reads her
book thunder thighs was one ofthe first plus size rep ones I
read. And this gorgeous Vikinglooking gunner just absolutely
(36:41):
is obsessed with Ella, and, oh,he's just gone for her
immediately. And I, I lovedseeing it. Julia wolf also has a
lot of plus size heroines. PS,you're intolerable is probably
one of my all time favoritereads. I don't know if you've
read that one, but it's,
Alesia Galati (37:01):
I have not, no, I'll check it out for sure.
Unknown (37:04):
Yeah, so you get like, a neuro diverse hero. It's a
boss employee romance, and she'spregnant, trying to hide it, to
get the job. It's not his,obviously, but he like takes
claim over this baby, and it'sso good. Actually, one of my
posts that has gotten the mostlikes is the breastfeeding
heroines, and they are heroeswho benefit. And that's a big
(37:27):
one in terms of historicalromance, it is harder. It's been
the hardest for me because Idon't know of any authors in
historical who writespecifically plus size heroines.
So anybody that I've put hasplus size heroines, but they're
not like exclusively, like youfind a lot with Monster romance
or paranormal romance orcontemporary Sarah McLean has
(37:49):
quite a few, like nine rules tobreak rogue not taken, which is
one of my favorites, knockoutGrayson and the Beast Felicity
Niven also has ved me Baron andvoluptuous. Nicola Davidson,
hands down best historicerotica. So good. And there's a
new, like, yeah, we justreleased one, like, a week ago.
(38:15):
That's like, it's a FEM Dom,mmf, so good. So yeah, there's
also a new series of novellasthat just finished releasing
called curves and cravats, andit's all historical novellas,
all with plus size heroines anddifferent authors. So that's
yeah, that's a good one. ShouldI keep going?
Alesia Galati (38:33):
Yes? For anyone taking notes, it's okay. We will
try to list as many of these,and we'll also make sure that we
link to your roundup posts inthe comments. For anyone. Wait,
I need more. Even if I have tohyperlink to this list, y'all
will
Unknown (38:50):
get the list for Monster romance. Meg Rhodes is a
new indie author she did, justreleased, called her sweet orc,
and it's the first in a series,and is basically like Halloween
Town, but with sexy times. Oh,and it was fantastic. Yeah,
Emily Antoinette is another onewho has a lot of plus size
(39:12):
heroines. She has a minotaurromance escaping the friend
zone. That was hot.
Alesia Galati (39:18):
I have that on my TBR, like it's in my channel
right now.
Unknown (39:21):
Yeah, that was my first Minotaur romance. And I was
like, Why did I like this? But Ireally liked and then there's
also a series of novellas thatjust finished releasing as well,
called the faded date series. Soit's multi author, and it's a
mix of monster and paranormalromances. So like Ellen drew
settle Meyer, who else had theLizzie strong had one in there.
(39:46):
So yes, lots of novellas forMonster and paranormal readers.
For Omega verse. I just finishedan arc of Emilia Emerson's a
pack for autumn. Oh my gosh. Theseries was called. Called cozy
person. It was a cozy romance,which is very hot, cozy romance.
So good. Love it. I can'trecommend it enough. It comes
(40:07):
out, I think November 13. That'ssuch a good one. And then in
terms of paranormal Stephaniecazaus, she started the Midwest
monster series earlier thisyear. And there is not a week
that has gone by that I have notcried over one specific thing
that happened on this book, andI message her about it all the
(40:27):
time. She's very patient withme, but she has the next one
coming out soon. It likechallenges this notion of faded
dates, and where does personalautonomy come into it? So it's
not just like a regular shift ofromance, and we get this female
Alpha leading a female led pack,and she's this gorgeous, plus
size wolf shifter. Awesome. LmDrew has two shifter series.
(40:50):
She's got the shifters of Gurugarur, I believe, is how it's
pronounced, and it's wolfshifters. But then she also has
the shifters of bear valley, andthose are bears, obviously. Sam
Crescent writes a lot of plussize heroines, and she's got the
Alpha shifters collection. Oh,and Kate C wells, also, you
always have to prepare yourselfto read a Kate C wells romance.
(41:13):
Her five packs theories, acouple of them have plus size
heroines. His curvy, rejectedmate is so good. So those are my
very quick rec,
Alesia Galati (41:23):
yeah, I love it.
So many good ones are there. ButI think literally, if you just
take one from one of thecategories that you're like,
Yes, I love these. Start there,you'll be fine. Where are some
other places that you arefinding that you're able to we
mentioned romance.io which iskind of it, because we don't
really know how their algorithmworks, or how they're
categorizing things, or who'sgiving that information, but I
(41:44):
think following accounts likeyourself, like fat girls in
fiction, ones that arespecifically promoting fat and
curvy and plus size maincharacters, I think is such an
important Part of making surethat we're seeing that in our
feed so often, we're like, oh, Ican't find it. Or I hear people
(42:05):
say, I can't find that. I can'tfind anything. With this type of
representation, you literallyjust need to follow creators who
are talking about this. You'regoing to have so many
recommendations. You have a tonof roundups, but where are some,
maybe one or two places that yourecommend that people also go
to.
Unknown (42:27):
It's difficult, but if you can find these creators on
Goodreads, like, if you look atmy Goodreads, I have four pages
of like, specific lists. And soanytime I'll mark something that
says stretch marks. Or I'll marksomething that says mmF. Mark
something that says mmF. Or, youknow, gray sweatpants is another
bookshelf I have. And so findingthose users on Goodreads and
(42:51):
looking at their shelves, ifthey do, you know, multiple
shelves, that's really helpful.
I've not delved into book talkbecause I keep reading a lot of
drama about it same, yeah, no, Ican't say whether that's a good
place to find that. Honestly,for me, again, following
accounts like minor fat girls infiction books with love handles
(43:13):
is a place where I get a lot ofmy recs. That's another
Instagram user, so Bookstagramhas been really useful for that
I message the authors is, youknow, one way that I find it,
most of them, especially theindie authors, are really quick
to respond. And I will say thatI really have better luck
finding not only plus size rep,but positive plus size rep from
(43:35):
those indie authors, because,you know, they're not
necessarily writing to therequirements of a traditional
publishing company or beingencouraged not to market
something as plus size. Yeah. Soyeah. Finding those indie
authors fat girls in fictiondoesn't just have her Instagram
page. She's got a whole websitethat's a really useful place for
(43:57):
that as well. Other podcast,faded mates, has a few episodes
that highlight Kirby girls.
That's another one. I can't saymuch for like, threads or x
because I don't do that much.
But yeah, Bookstagram has beenwhere it's at for me. And deep
diving good reads as well. So,
Alesia Galati (44:15):
yeah, oh, those are so perfect. Yeah. If anyone
who knows mirror has heardlisten to this podcast notes. I
don't do book talk. I can't.
It's just they're too young forme over there, I think. And I
just, yeah, yeah, not interestedin arguing about why I read smut
to people,
Unknown (44:35):
right? No, thank you.
Yeah. And I just keep hearingthat there's so much like drama
with certain book talk thingsI'm I have no I got other stuff.
I got a life and smoke to read.
Thank you exactly. Better use ofyour time. Amy, this
Alesia Galati (44:51):
has been so much fun, and you've given us so many
different recommendations, yes,and ways that we can get out
there. And read some curvy orfat romances. Where can people
find you? We did mention yourhandle, but where can people
find you? Hang out with you,send you a DM and tell you thank
you for all of theserecommendations. Yeah,
Unknown (45:12):
so I'm at curvy girls read romance all just one word,
no punctuation, on Instagram andon Goodreads, and then I also
have, there's a book Bub accounttoo. It's just the exact same
thing. So yeah, that's where Iam,
Alesia Galati (45:27):
perfect. Thank you so much. Amy, this has been
so much. Thank you for havingme.
Unknown (45:39):
You.
Just like any other representation, fat and
(00:03):
curvy representation is such animportant part of romance.
Today, we're talking with Amy ofcurvy girls read romance on why
it's important for us to havethis representation and some
incredible recommendations foryou based on what genre you
enjoy most. We'll also be sureto have a link to that full list
(00:25):
in the show notes and thedescription if you are looking
for any of thoserecommendations.
Hi, Amy, I was so excited tohave you on and you are the face
behind curvy girls read romance.
When I started following youraccount, and I was like, Oh my
(00:47):
gosh, yes, we need to befriends. This is gonna be great.
So if you could start by tellingeveryone a bit about your
reading journey, especially asyour adult reading journey goes,
Unknown (01:00):
I found my way to romance in grad school because I
just desperately needed to readsomething that was not a
textbook or a journal article orsomething like that. So I'm a
historian, so I started withlike historical mystery, and
then from there went to likehistorical romance, which will
always be like one of myfavorites, I realized it's not
(01:23):
for everybody. But then fromthere, I went into contemporary
and paranormal. And for like,the month of October, I did a
bunch of monster romancereadings, which was really fun,
nice. But then, you know, as Iwas reading with historicals, in
particular, there are very fewplus size in historicals,
especially. And I think what Ifound more like with
(01:46):
traditionally published authors,they'll tend to have one per
series, one like, just for thatrepresentation, there's one plus
size person per series,especially with traditionally
published authors, it was hardto find them. I wanted to see
myself represented in the booksthat I was reading, and so I
(02:07):
started seeking out specificallyplus size heroines to start. And
now I'll read anybody who's likea plus size protagonist. That
sort of led to my like, jump outof historical and into
contemporary. Just because thereare so few, I was able to
compile, like a list of somehistorical authors who are
starting to do this more. Butyeah, that's sort of how that
(02:31):
came to be. And then as Istarted to compile this list on
my goodread shelves andeverything, I thought, well, if
I'm looking for this, someoneelse must be looking for this.
So that's when I started theBookstagram account, and just
went from there. I think thatplus size representation is so
(02:52):
important, especially with howsocietally plus size folks are
viewed. I recently was editing aclient's podcast, and I wanted
to throw this woman out
Alesia Galati (03:06):
just like, Nope, this episode is terrible because
you had a lot of like opinionson people's weight, and if
you're not sleeping well atnight, or if you're not the
weight that you want to be, thenit's probably because of your
mindset. And I was like, oh, no,you're You're the problem, lady,
yeah, and yeah. And so we see alot of that, and a lot of
(03:28):
opinions about what someonelooks like being a
representation of theirhealthiness. And I'm using bunny
ears here for people who arelistening and can't see me and
think that it's such a hugeproblem. So I think that it is
important that we see plus sizecharacters in love, being loved,
(03:49):
not despite their weight ordespite what they look like, but
also because of just who theyare and their love interests.
Seeing the roles and being like,I love all of it, and I love it.
We're seeing that a lot more inthe romances, at least the ones
I've been reading where there'sa plus size character. You can
(04:10):
from one of the other characterspoint of view, they'll mention,
I can see the stretch marks onher legs, and I just yeah, it's
all up on them. And I'm justlike, yeah, yeah. What are your
thoughts on all of that?
Unknown (04:24):
I absolutely agree. And I think there's also, like, the
fat phobia and fat shaming is sodeeply entrenched in society and
in romance as well. I did a posta few months back about how I go
about and asking other peoplehow they go about finding
specifically plus sized heroinesor protagonists in general. I
(04:47):
said, I really like when someonedoes an Instagram post with the
micro tropes, and I can see it,you know that it says plus size
heroin, or it'll say Husky hero,or something like that. But then
at the same time, I would getfriends. Frustrated like this
shouldn't have to be singled outbecause it is about more than
weight. And so it's like writingthis fine line between making it
(05:09):
easier to find these charactersand then not wanting them to
have to be singled out by theirweight. And then it sort of went
into this discussion of plussize rep not taking place on
cover. So even if the romance isabout a plus size hero or
heroine, the cover doesn'treflect that whatsoever. And so
I did some posts like, all ofthese are books with plus size
(05:32):
heroines, but none of them arereflected on the covers. And I
did other ones later about hereare ones that actually have plus
size rep. And like you said, Ohmy god, she has stretch marks.
And you can like, it's just sonice to be represented on that.
I remember the first cover thatI absolutely fell in love with
(05:52):
was curves for days by LauraLaura Moore, something like
that. And it just has thisbeautiful, curvaceous woman on
the front, and it's just her,and she looks just so confident.
And it was just like, it was thefirst one that I really was
like, Oh my God, thisrepresentation is awesome. So
now every few months, I'll doposts like, Here are more
(06:15):
authors who are doing this plussize rep on their covers. And
from there, people were saying,okay, you know, I go to romance
IO, and I'll look up a specificauthor, and then you can select
heroin and curvy heroin, andthat's a way to do it. But it's
also sometimes not as accurate.
I'm not sure what their processis, but, like, I've gotten
(06:37):
wrecks from there, and then theyweren't plus sized. I also
sometimes message the authorsdirectly, and I'm like, Hey, is
this a plus size heroine? Andthey'll let me know, oh, she's
mid sized. Or, you know, thisone's not. But I have this book
that is, which is reallyhelpful, and most authors are
really great with that. Then Ihad one author who wrote a plus
size character in an upcomingrelease, okay, she looked plus
(07:01):
sized on the cover. And so Iwanted to write to verify,
because none of her promotionalmaterials specified that this
was a plus size character. Andso I wrote, and I was saying,
I'm just wondering if this is aplus size character. I you know,
I'd like to feature it, if so?
And she said, I've been told notto market this as plus sized,
(07:23):
but this character is, she ismore reflective of realistic
body types. And like, I thankedher, and I did a post on it
later. I didn't name her becauseI wasn't trying to put someone
on blast. I wanted to talkabout, like, the discourse. And
I was like, you know, I'm notgoing to end up reading this
book, but I thought about thisall afternoon, and it's
(07:47):
incredibly frustrating to seethat even if someone is trying
to write this, they feel like itneeds to be concealed. It was
just so disheartening. But atthe same time, when I did that
post, so many authors cameforward, and they're like, I
write unapologetically fatwomen, plus size women, curvy
women, however, or, you know, Iwrite plus size men. I write
(08:12):
these Husky heroes, and it wasjust like the discourse we had
in that comment section all day.
It made me feel so much betterafter feeling so shitty after
that, like really dishearteninginteraction. So finding these
types of protagonists, you haveto do quite a bit of work for
it, unless someone is willing toput it on their marketing, which
(08:32):
we're learning. You know, itfeels like one step forward, two
steps back. So we see someauthors are really end of body
positivity and others, they'lldo it almost like, Well, to me,
it felt like tokenism. I'm goingto write this person, and she's
plus size, but we're not goingto say anything about that. It's
just really difficult trying tonavigate that sometimes. So,
Alesia Galati (08:59):
yeah, I know that I've seen very similarly with
books that maybe have what looklike a browner person on there,
or maybe it's showing them as Bor they'll describe them as more
olive tone. And I'm like, whatethnicity are they?
Unknown (09:19):
I feel like I need more thing,
Alesia Galati (09:24):
not at all that could be Italian, like, or,
right, you know? Like, what isit? Yeah, so I think that it
one. I love that you approachthe author, and that's something
that I've been doing as well.
Like, hey, I want to promotebipoc authors. Feel free to say
you don't want to answer, or youdon't feel comfortable answering
100% but I would like to do aLatinx post, and I believe
(09:46):
you're Latinx, so please let meknow if that's accurate or
inaccurate. Like I want to makesure that I represent you
properly, right? Everyone I havereached out to has been more
than welcoming of saying, Ohyes, I am or. I do identify that
as that, or I I identify asthis, and I don't identify as
Latinx, and I'm like, okay,cool, that helps me right, be
able to one promote them in theright way and not do a
(10:08):
disservice to my followers ofmisrepresenting these people.
But then also, I think that it'sso important as readers and as
people who want to read morediversely, that we do follow the
accounts that are taking thetime and effort to actually get
shit about this stuff right,like your account, like our
(10:30):
account, where we are going theextra step to say yes, even
though these covers might notshow that these characters are
curvy, or maybe it's a colorfulfloral cover, or they're
illustrated characters. We don'tsay cartoon characters,
illustrated characters, thenthese are actually curvy, mid
size or plus size women or Huskyheroes, or whatever it is,
(10:55):
right? It's good that we havepeople that are doing the work,
and I think that it gives evenless of an excuse for people who
are like, Oh, I can't findanything. You literally just
need to search.
Unknown (11:07):
Yeah, there are ways of finding when it
comes to like terminology, Ifeel fine using the term fat. I
do not see the word fat as a badthing, as an insult whatsoever.
And so I try to integrate that alittle bit more in my posts.
Most people use plus size, andI'm fine with doing that. The
term curvy, I love it, but it'salso it can be misused, because
(11:30):
a lot of times authors will sayshe had curves in all the right
places, and they like came intothe tiniest waist. So, yeah,
you're like, Okay, this is alsonot very realized.
No, are wetalking about Dolly Parton here?
I mean, it's just the idea of,like curves in all the right
(11:53):
places. So curve is somethingthat can be absolutely misused.
And I fully realized that when Ichose my name for the Instagram
profile, but more peopleidentified with that. But I also
think we have to be reallycareful with it, and now that
we're starting to see a littlebit more representation of plus
size men, we have to figure outwhat men are comfortable being
(12:14):
called, because the idea ofHusky heroes that can have that
same idea of curvy like, whatdoes that mean? Are men going to
want to be called plus size?
I've been such a feminist for solong, and I like, I I don't
always be like what the menthink on this, but it is the
representation of thosecharacters in the stories. So
(12:37):
obviously that makes sense, buttrying to condition ourselves to
figure out what is going to belike, the appropriate
terminology in that sense too.
So,
Alesia Galati (12:45):
oh, that's so interesting. Yeah, I even think
about so I have boys, and theyare not in the Husky men's
section or the Husky boyssection, but when I think of
like even my brothers as theywere growing up, you would have
the difference of the size 12kids, or the 12 size Husky kids,
(13:05):
and where it has a little moreroom to it, right? And so that
might be a term that they'relike, that seems plus for
women's. Of those are the plussizes. Those are the Husky
sizes. And so it could have anegative connotation, and that's
not even something that I'veeven considered. So thank you
for bringing that and, yeah, Ithink that it's really important
(13:25):
that we're considering all ofthese things mid size. We're
specifically talking in USsizes, right? I understand that
there are other sizes in othercountries that you're like,
Wait, what are you even talkingabout? Right? Like the fact that
mid size can be anything from a10, which makes no sense to me
(13:46):
at all, Oh, my God, to a 16 oran 18, like I feel like 18. Then
you start getting into the morefat sizes, or the plus sizes,
where people think, oh, mid sizeis anywhere from 10 to 1618, and
then 18 and up is more plussize. And it's like, okay, who
(14:07):
made those rules?
Unknown (14:08):
First of all, yeah, there's no like definition, and
so everybody's scale isdifferent. It's completely
arbitrary. Just the entire
Alesia Galati (14:19):
Yeah, I can even think of one book I read. I
believe it was a book byAlexandra house. She writes a
lot of plus size women and curvywomen into her stories. I
absolutely love that. And shementioned, I believe she
mentioned the size as a 22 andin my head, I was like, I'm
(14:39):
trying to think of like peoplein my life that I maybe know her
a size 22 to be able to imaginethat I am personally like a 1618
imagining this character. But Iwas like, who cares? She is
getting dicked down. Let's keepgoing
Unknown (14:57):
like she's living her best life. That's enough. Other
thing, like, I love when thesize is mentioned and it's high
double digits, but at the sametime, I'm like, shouldn't have
to do this. CeCe Monroe, shejust had a dark romance release,
and she's like, this is a size26 heroine. And I'm like, great,
get it. I love it. Like, I loveit just for reading purposes. It
(15:22):
helps me visualize better. But Ilove when they do that. I really
do. But yes, I read one thatwas, like, labeled as a curvy
heroine, and then they describedher measurements, and she was
five 960 pounds. That's not plussize that's not curvy. That's
just a purpose. Wow.
Alesia Galati (15:47):
To give reference, I am about 220, and I
am five, five, and I'm a size 16ish, so like to give people a
scale that's four inches
Unknown (16:00):
I am, and, you know, a lot of pounds less than I am.
I'maround, like, 215 220 and then
I'm a size 18, and I'm fivefour, so I'm thinking, Oh, my
God, 160 pounds and you're fivenine. This is like, real fit,
Alesia Galati (16:18):
yes, and then you have to think too about, like,
shape, right? That's somethingthat, for me, personally, has
changed so much, like weightversus shape. As I've gone
through two pregnancies, a lotmore of the my fat is in my
belly and in my butt and myhips, my legs are thick too,
like, and the but that my upperbody is like, All right, we're
(16:39):
fine. My arms, yeah, very fatty.
I've got some rolls on my bag.
But, like, I don't know it's myweight has been so different,
like when I was like, thinkingabout after my first pregnancy,
and being like, 170 and beinglike, Oh my God, I am getting so
fat. And then being like, Man, Iam healthy. I am birthed
children. So much with thisbody, and this body is powerful.
(17:05):
And then being active versusbeing like, I need to lose
weight, or being strong versusbeing like, I need to lose
weight. And so I think one,there's like, so many different
ways that we could take thisconversation, but bringing it
back to like, reading andromance, I think that it's so
important that these charactersare described, and that we don't
(17:28):
have to fluff over what theylook like or if they are curvy
or are plus size, that we don'thave to say, you know, curves in
all the right places just tomake everybody happy. Like, no,
let's get away with that.
Unknown (17:41):
I started highlighting every time an author mentioned
stretch marks in a book, and Ihave a whole shelf now on
Goodreads of all these romancesthat mentioned stretch marks.
And it just makes me so happy.
Like I remember the first time Iread that that was mentioned,
and I was like, Oh my God, thiswas incredible. And it's
something so small, but it justlike that, that representation
(18:02):
matters. That just made my wholeday.
Alesia Galati (18:07):
Yes, oh, it's so good. So what do you think that
some authors maybe could dobetter, or we as readers could
request from authors to dobetter in this realm? Actually,
I was just thinking
Unknown (18:21):
about this last night.
Somebody had done a post onInstagram of like, free
paranormal romances that hadplus size characters, and so I
went and downloaded a bunch ofthem, and I read one of them,
and it was written in 2014 Iactually read it last night. I
DNFed it because I've noticedthat plus size characters
written in the early 2000 plussize characters written now are
(18:45):
incredibly different. So thiswas 2014 and it was the
paranormal romance, like it's aMFM, and they find their faded
mate, and one of them is shockedthat he is attracted to this
plus sized woman, and keepstelling her that she is so not
his type, and he's like, I keepwaiting to be turned off by you.
(19:06):
This is only 10 years old. Itwas horrifying, and so I DNFed
it. It was not for me, but nowfinding authors who do this is
easier because authors who arelike devoted to this cause, they
do it proudly. When I did thatpost that I mentioned a few
(19:30):
weeks ago, LM drew commented,she's wrote, she goes, I write
fat women getting railed, andit's fantastic, my sales don't
suffer because of it. Yes isn'ttagline. I believe, yes, I love
her so much.
Alesia Galati (19:50):
It's the unapologetic that we love,
right? Like, even unapologeticmidsize too, I think is really
good too, because I think therepresentation. One of the
average woman is about mid size.
It is the 16 to 18 size. Likethat is pretty normal, and we're
just not seeing that reflectedin a lot of media. And so to see
(20:12):
that reflected, even lookingokay, we could talk about
bridgerton season two, and howsocietally everybody was like,
oh my goodness, a fat womanbeing the love interest. We
never see this or right therewas a an Instagram personality.
I can't think of his accountright now, but he was
(20:36):
sarcastically saying, Wow, we'venever seen a fat person and a
thin person on media before.
That's crazy. And then he justrolled through all of these,
like pictures of a fat male maincharacter and a very skinny or
(20:58):
attractive female maincharacter. And he was like, wow,
we've never seen that before. Icannot believe it. And it just
kept going. And there were like15 different cartoon shows, real
people's shows, all of thisstuff where it's a fat man in
love with a skinny woman, butnobody bats an eye. And he was
(21:19):
like, why is this foundationallya big deal? Guys? It's not
anything new. Get over it. Yeah.
Unknown (21:28):
Like, nobody in history was fat, going back to
bridgerton, just the idea thatthere was just the one fat
person in the entire socialbook.
Alesia Galati (21:40):
Oh, my God, yes, yes, guys, come on. But that is
something that I don't thinkthat people talk about enough is
people having to eat whateverwas available to them. They
didn't have grocery stores. Theyhad whatever they could make,
whatever they could access. Noone had a Harris Teeter. Like,
(22:03):
go get the groceries that the,you know, the organic foods.
Like, no, it was whatever youhad, is what you had, you know.
And then you've got the richpeople getting all the foods and
the poor people like, look, wegot potatoes. That's all we got.
It's a weird gonna eat thesepotatoes? That's it.
Unknown (22:22):
Yeah, to imagine
Alesia Galati (22:23):
that fat people is only now, no, that is not at
all how
Unknown (22:29):
it works. So I'm a historian. That's my trade.
There's a notion that if youwere fat historically, it meant
you were wealthy. And sure, thisis, you know, likely true if you
have more access to more food,sure, but the idea that there no
(22:52):
fat poor people, no plump poorpeople throughout history, is
also insanity
Alesia Galati (22:59):
for real, like everybody who's poor just has no
food or what? Yeah, it doesn'tmake any sense either. Yeah,
they just don't understand howthis works.
Unknown (23:13):
Think about it. If the foods you have access to are
only grains, and that's thecheapest food too, and that's
all you're going to be able toeat, that's gonna affect you,
depending on
Alesia Galati (23:23):
where you live in the world, what you have access
to, like, there's so manydifferent elements to this that
it is silly that we would lookat history and be like, Nope, it
was just one, one black or whitestatement that encompasses
everybody. It's like, that's nothow it works at all, and that's
not how it works now. So lookingeven deeper than plus size is
(23:46):
really important, that weunderstand that. And this is
something that I feel like I'vebeen having a lot of
conversations about lately, isthat we as humans are so
multifaceted, and I think thatas women, we tend to be viewed
very one sided. You're a mother,you're a sister, you're a
(24:07):
daughter, you're a woman insociety, right? Like, there's
only the one view that we tendto have, or that people tend to
see us as, and then, ergo, wesee ourselves as if we haven't
done work to like, really sitwith ourselves and see what
makes us ourselves and somultifaceted as human beings,
(24:29):
beyond just being, oh, thesecharacters are fat. There's so
many more experiences to thesepeople. How do you feel that
plus size romance isspecifically go beyond just
focusing on the weight andgiving even more representation
to humanity as a society andmultifaceted people. I
Unknown (24:50):
just finished reading Kelly Reynolds her new release
pitches be crazy. It's baseballromance, the second one in her
Rose City Roasters series. 90s,and it's a by hero and a by
heroine, and they're both justthey have no intention of having
children exploring this notionof being child free by choice. I
(25:14):
loved that, and I every time Iread one of Kelly Reynolds
books, I tell her that I wish Icould live in the world she
wrote because she does such agood job of emphasizing mental
health. She does such a good jobof repping neurodiversity and
sexuality. And I just absolutelylove the worlds that she writes
(25:36):
all of her books right now. Ibelieve have plus nice women. I
also recently read settle Myersbeyond the bright lights. It
wasn't published this year, butI read it this year, and it was
the most impactfulrepresentation of grief that
I've ever read. So theprotagonist is a plus size woman
(25:57):
in a small town, and she hadthis great love story with her
fiance, and then he gets cancerand passes away. And she's
obviously devastated, and thenthey're gonna make a movie about
what happened in his life,because he was like this
football star, and then becamethis advocate for cancer
(26:17):
research, and she falls in lovewith the actor who comes to town
to play her fiance, and it'sjust this journey through grief.
I sobbed through it. It's alsothis huge representation of
addiction, because the actor'san addict. And these stories
have so much more than justweight, like it was a heavy
(26:38):
read, but it was so beautifullydone, and he is so obsessed with
her. It's a reverse age gapalso, and he is absolutely gone
for her from the moment theymeet. He like, loves her stretch
marks, and she's so soft andshe's so lush. And so yes, there
is that aspect of, yes, she's aplus size woman, and let's
(27:00):
acknowledge it, but also there'sall this other stuff going on.
Settle Meyer just knocks me offmy feet all the time right now,
for me, she's, like, the mostversatile, because she's got
contemporary she just did somemonster romances. She's got a
dark romance with rival contractkillers. That's so good. And so
she's like dabbling andeverything, and she's so good.
(27:22):
And then Sloan Spencer wasanother one who I'm absolutely
obsessed with lately. It's anmmf romance, and so we get some
bi rep. And one of the heroes isjust absolutely trying to
connect with his identity,because he was adopted as a
child. He's Korean, I believe,but raised by white people, and
(27:44):
he wants to find his culturalidentity, and his parents are
really offended by it. There'salso the other male protagonist,
has PTSD, and then the femaleheroine, yes, she's plus size,
but she's also dealing withgrief over a miscarriage, and so
there's huge mental health repin that. And I just think that
especially books publishedwithin the last maybe not 10
(28:07):
years after last night, butmaybe the last five years, we're
getting so much depth in termsof representation and just lived
experiences. And I think that'swhat it is. It's highlighting,
yes, we get to understand whatthese lived experiences of plus
size people are like, if anauthor mentions boob sweat, I'm
(28:27):
there. If she, you know,mentioned stretch marks, or she
mentioned laying down in yourboobs, go to the side. It's just
realistic. But then you're alsogetting these other lived
experiences that like, yes, fatpeople are fat, but they're also
people that is not the sum oftheir identity. I just have been
really pleased with authors whoare doing this today. I
Alesia Galati (28:52):
could not agree enough. And I think that when
you have things like grief andaddiction and mental health, rep
and so much more. I think thatit really does allow us to have
more of an empathy. And I'mfinding this has to be the
through line through season one,because a lot of these
(29:13):
conversations I'm having are,it's not, oh, wow, it's it's
romance. And even though it'sromance, you're getting this
it's because it's romance. We'regetting all of this depth, and
we're getting so much more tothese characters than just, oh,
they fall in love andeverything's fine like no these
(29:36):
authors are putting in so mucheffort to create a well rounded
story that really does tacklereal issues, and I think can
allow us as readers, whetheryou're fat or not, get a better
empathy for others. And I didmention this on another episode.
(29:56):
I don't know when it's goinglive, but I know myself. Of when
I started reading romance, youknow, I would just read it for
the smut, because we read smut,that's just what I wanted to
read, also exactly. And I wasalso, like, after my second
pregnancy, my libido was reallylow, and that helped me a lot. I
did not want to take any type ofmedications from my doctor. I
(30:19):
didn't want to use any cream. Ijust wanted to be naturally more
lubricated. And this worked forme. And that's okay, right? And
so like, then it got deeper. I'mlearning so much of these
characters, and when I got theautism diagnosis for my son,
being like, well, I've readbooks with autistic main
(30:40):
characters that are close on thespectrum to where he is. I know
what he might be going through.
I might be able to empathize alot better, to be able to bring
him back to center when he feelslike he's spiraling, or find
ways that I can work with him,because I've seen this in books,
and wait a minute, I feel likethat sometimes. Maybe I need to
(31:01):
go get a check with the doctorto the CF. Maybe I am on the
spectrum as well, right? Like,it can teach us so much of not
just ourselves, but also thepeople around us. I can have
that empathy, and I can see itfrom outside of my own lens,
beyond just oh, they're fat andthey have boobs wet here.
Totally get it right. So muchmore to these characters that we
(31:21):
can get, and so much that we asreaders can get from romance
that can honestly heal us inways that I don't think we even
realized when we started reading
Unknown (31:36):
like you, I started for the smut. My anti depression,
anti anxiety, is an SSRI, and itjust absolutely kills your sex
drive. And, hey, look, yeah,free material. And so, yeah,
that's where it started. Thenyou start, you know, looking for
more story. I recently readKatie dugans from the start.
She's a new indie author. Shehas two books out right now, but
(31:58):
from the start, was her firstone. Have you read this one?
Yes, I love that one. So goodNick gets this, like autistic
diagnosis as an adult, and it'sbeen recommended that I go get
an autism type of success as anadult. You know, just trying to
relate to it from thatperspective. But then the first
(32:18):
person she tells is this like,childhood enemy that she had,
and he is just so sweet to her,and he's so, like, accommodating
and accepting of her autism, andshe wants sex lessons because
she wants to be able to, like,have sex with people in a way
that she doesn't want to be toomuch for people, And him telling
(32:40):
her that she's not too much, andhe Oh, my God, he makes a sex
syllabus is the best thing forthat. Let's know he's a
professor too. So likebut and then she always has a
weighted blanket, but she loveswhen he will be her weighted
blanket. And it was these thesestories that people are writing
(33:01):
now. They just, it's so good,it's so good, so much better
than, I guess, what we weregetting 10
Alesia Galati (33:10):
years ago. Yeah, oh man, it's so true. And, I
mean, I love it. I'm here forit. It's such an important
direction that we're taking forsure. What are some other
authors that you're like, reallyenjoying right now?
Unknown (33:27):
I did a list.
I saw your list, and I was like,Oh, I love all of this.
Okay, so I will try. I did areally long one, but I will try
to go through by section. So ifwe start with sports romance, I
guess we'll start with sportsromance. So as I mentioned,
Kelly Reynolds has the Rose CityRoasters series. In both of
(33:49):
those that are out so far, wehave plus size protagonists,
also by Rep and queer rep,really good. And then Mary
Warren has the Glendale Magicseries. It's a hockey series,
and Mary Warren runs fat girlsin fiction, which is a huge
collective on a much more biggerscale than what I do of
(34:10):
highlighting fat girls andfiction. Obviously, Amy award
has the cocky Kingman series.
It's a football romance series,all plus size protagonists. The
second one is like a Taylor andTravis like a retelling, but
with a plus size heroine. Andthen Sloane Spencer's doing. She
started the rugby lover series.
(34:30):
She's working on the second oneof that right now. And the first
one was one of my favorite readsof this whole year. It's a
friends to lovers and a surprisepregnancy one. And then SJ Tilly
has the sleet series, which isso good. It's a hockey one. In
terms of contemporaries, I loveTalia hibberts, the brown
(34:50):
sisters series. They're allthree plus size heroines. And
then Kayla gross, who's dubbedthe queen of smut. She writes.
Is the hottest romance. She'sgot the Cowboys at Nighthawk
series, but then she also has acouple of novellas that came out
this year and last year that areinsanely hot. Oh. Kelsey host
(35:14):
has her Hello series that's likesmall town all plus size
heroines. Mary Warren, who didthe hockey series also has her
Mystic Falls series, LeonorSolis, who is a Latina writer.
I'm half Mexican, so I'm alwayslooking for Latina rep in my
reads also, but she has the cozyLatina billionaire series. If
(35:38):
you're looking for like shorterreads, I like to use them as
palette cleansers between longerreads. Cat Baxter is my absolute
favorite for that. Mia Brody isanother one too. I will say, for
Mia Brody, the covers are neverplus size ramp, which can be
frustrating. And then Anna Pwrites plus size South Asian
(35:59):
characters. They're so good.
Georgina Kirsten, she's a bipocauthor with bipoc heroines and
heroes, and she in her more tolove books she's got. It's a
male romance with a plus sizehero. Danielle Allen's that came
out over the summer, her curvygirl summer. It's part of her
curve series. There are morecoming, also by POC, author and
(36:20):
heroine there. So yeah, thoseare really good ones. Evie
Mitchell is huge for diversity,and she writes shorter reads her
book thunder thighs was one ofthe first plus size rep ones I
read. And this gorgeous Vikinglooking gunner just absolutely
(36:41):
is obsessed with Ella, and, oh,he's just gone for her
immediately. And I, I lovedseeing it. Julia wolf also has a
lot of plus size heroines. PS,you're intolerable is probably
one of my all time favoritereads. I don't know if you've
read that one, but it's,
Alesia Galati (37:01):
I have not, no, I'll check it out for sure.
Unknown (37:04):
Yeah, so you get like, a neuro diverse hero. It's a
boss employee romance, and she'spregnant, trying to hide it, to
get the job. It's not his,obviously, but he like takes
claim over this baby, and it'sso good. Actually, one of my
posts that has gotten the mostlikes is the breastfeeding
heroines, and they are heroeswho benefit. And that's a big
(37:27):
one in terms of historicalromance, it is harder. It's been
the hardest for me because Idon't know of any authors in
historical who writespecifically plus size heroines.
So anybody that I've put hasplus size heroines, but they're
not like exclusively, like youfind a lot with Monster romance
or paranormal romance orcontemporary Sarah McLean has
(37:49):
quite a few, like nine rules tobreak rogue not taken, which is
one of my favorites, knockoutGrayson and the Beast Felicity
Niven also has ved me Baron andvoluptuous. Nicola Davidson,
hands down best historicerotica. So good. And there's a
new, like, yeah, we justreleased one, like, a week ago.
(38:15):
That's like, it's a FEM Dom,mmf, so good. So yeah, there's
also a new series of novellasthat just finished releasing
called curves and cravats, andit's all historical novellas,
all with plus size heroines anddifferent authors. So that's
yeah, that's a good one. ShouldI keep going?
Alesia Galati (38:33):
Yes? For anyone taking notes, it's okay. We will
try to list as many of these,and we'll also make sure that we
link to your roundup posts inthe comments. For anyone. Wait,
I need more. Even if I have tohyperlink to this list, y'all
will
Unknown (38:50):
get the list for Monster romance. Meg Rhodes is a
new indie author she did, justreleased, called her sweet orc,
and it's the first in a series,and is basically like Halloween
Town, but with sexy times. Oh,and it was fantastic. Yeah,
Emily Antoinette is another onewho has a lot of plus size
(39:12):
heroines. She has a minotaurromance escaping the friend
zone. That was hot.
Alesia Galati (39:18):
I have that on my TBR, like it's in my channel
right now.
Unknown (39:21):
Yeah, that was my first Minotaur romance. And I was
like, Why did I like this? But Ireally liked and then there's
also a series of novellas thatjust finished releasing as well,
called the faded date series. Soit's multi author, and it's a
mix of monster and paranormalromances. So like Ellen drew
settle Meyer, who else had theLizzie strong had one in there.
(39:46):
So yes, lots of novellas forMonster and paranormal readers.
For Omega verse. I just finishedan arc of Emilia Emerson's a
pack for autumn. Oh my gosh. Theseries was called. Called cozy
person. It was a cozy romance,which is very hot, cozy romance.
So good. Love it. I can'trecommend it enough. It comes
(40:07):
out, I think November 13. That'ssuch a good one. And then in
terms of paranormal Stephaniecazaus, she started the Midwest
monster series earlier thisyear. And there is not a week
that has gone by that I have notcried over one specific thing
that happened on this book, andI message her about it all the
(40:27):
time. She's very patient withme, but she has the next one
coming out soon. It likechallenges this notion of faded
dates, and where does personalautonomy come into it? So it's
not just like a regular shift ofromance, and we get this female
Alpha leading a female led pack,and she's this gorgeous, plus
size wolf shifter. Awesome. LmDrew has two shifter series.
(40:50):
She's got the shifters of Gurugarur, I believe, is how it's
pronounced, and it's wolfshifters. But then she also has
the shifters of bear valley, andthose are bears, obviously. Sam
Crescent writes a lot of plussize heroines, and she's got the
Alpha shifters collection. Oh,and Kate C wells, also, you
always have to prepare yourselfto read a Kate C wells romance.
(41:13):
Her five packs theories, acouple of them have plus size
heroines. His curvy, rejectedmate is so good. So those are my
very quick rec,
Alesia Galati (41:23):
yeah, I love it.
So many good ones are there. ButI think literally, if you just
take one from one of thecategories that you're like,
Yes, I love these. Start there,you'll be fine. Where are some
other places that you arefinding that you're able to we
mentioned romance.io which iskind of it, because we don't
really know how their algorithmworks, or how they're
categorizing things, or who'sgiving that information, but I
(41:44):
think following accounts likeyourself, like fat girls in
fiction, ones that arespecifically promoting fat and
curvy and plus size maincharacters, I think is such an
important Part of making surethat we're seeing that in our
feed so often, we're like, oh, Ican't find it. Or I hear people
(42:05):
say, I can't find that. I can'tfind anything. With this type of
representation, you literallyjust need to follow creators who
are talking about this. You'regoing to have so many
recommendations. You have a tonof roundups, but where are some,
maybe one or two places that yourecommend that people also go
to.
Unknown (42:27):
It's difficult, but if you can find these creators on
Goodreads, like, if you look atmy Goodreads, I have four pages
of like, specific lists. And soanytime I'll mark something that
says stretch marks. Or I'll marksomething that says mmF. Mark
something that says mmF. Or, youknow, gray sweatpants is another
bookshelf I have. And so findingthose users on Goodreads and
(42:51):
looking at their shelves, ifthey do, you know, multiple
shelves, that's really helpful.
I've not delved into book talkbecause I keep reading a lot of
drama about it same, yeah, no, Ican't say whether that's a good
place to find that. Honestly,for me, again, following
accounts like minor fat girls infiction books with love handles
(43:13):
is a place where I get a lot ofmy recs. That's another
Instagram user, so Bookstagramhas been really useful for that
I message the authors is, youknow, one way that I find it,
most of them, especially theindie authors, are really quick
to respond. And I will say thatI really have better luck
finding not only plus size rep,but positive plus size rep from
(43:35):
those indie authors, because,you know, they're not
necessarily writing to therequirements of a traditional
publishing company or beingencouraged not to market
something as plus size. Yeah. Soyeah. Finding those indie
authors fat girls in fictiondoesn't just have her Instagram
page. She's got a whole websitethat's a really useful place for
(43:57):
that as well. Other podcast,faded mates, has a few episodes
that highlight Kirby girls.
That's another one. I can't saymuch for like, threads or x
because I don't do that much.
But yeah, Bookstagram has beenwhere it's at for me. And deep
diving good reads as well. So,
Alesia Galati (44:15):
yeah, oh, those are so perfect. Yeah. If anyone
who knows mirror has heardlisten to this podcast notes. I
don't do book talk. I can't.
It's just they're too young forme over there, I think. And I
just, yeah, yeah, not interestedin arguing about why I read smut
to people,
Unknown (44:35):
right? No, thank you.
Yeah. And I just keep hearingthat there's so much like drama
with certain book talk thingsI'm I have no I got other stuff.
I got a life and smoke to read.
Thank you exactly. Better use ofyour time. Amy, this
Alesia Galati (44:51):
has been so much fun, and you've given us so many
different recommendations, yes,and ways that we can get out
there. And read some curvy orfat romances. Where can people
find you? We did mention yourhandle, but where can people
find you? Hang out with you,send you a DM and tell you thank
you for all of theserecommendations. Yeah,
Unknown (45:12):
so I'm at curvy girls read romance all just one word,
no punctuation, on Instagram andon Goodreads, and then I also
have, there's a book Bub accounttoo. It's just the exact same
thing. So yeah, that's where Iam,
Alesia Galati (45:27):
perfect. Thank you so much. Amy, this has been
so much. Thank you for havingme.
Unknown (45:39):
You.
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