Hi friend,

 

This weekend is my last set of events of the year, and I have offerings for you on both days!

 

 

On Saturday, fat-positive therapist Kayla Stansberry is speaking to my Blanket Fort members about fat trauma. We'll dig into the trauma we accumulate as fat people in a thin-obsessed world, and do some collective healing.

 

Kayla will walk us through:

 

» Validating Fat Trauma

» Covert/Overt Trauma & Impacts

» Community Creation as Healing

» Embracing Emotions as Resistance

 

 

Bri and I met up this week on Instagram live to chat about what you can expect at the Unseen masterclass, and I saved the video for you. 

 

Scroll down for an excerpt from the Instagram live replay, then watch the whole thing or read the transcript here before registering for the masterclass.

 

Unapologetically fat,

 

» Coming up: Dealing with Diet Culture and Weight Stigma at the Holidays, November 13 (see)

 

» The right for fat people to exist free of bigotry should not hinge on their health status. (read)

 

» Scary statistics about weight stigma and antifat bias (read)

 

» If you'd like to help the Native Village of Kotzebue after a major storm, they're taking contributions through the Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation. (read)

 

» Speaking of storms, here are some places you can help western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene and get your holidays gifts at the same time:

 

 

» Jordan x US: an androgynous adaptable collaboration in sizes 00-40 (see)

 

» Mother says AI chatbot led her son to kill himself in lawsuit against its maker (read)

 

» AI overwhelmingly prefers white and male job candidates in new test of resume-screening bias (read)

 

» All goo.gl links will stop redirecting as of 25 August 2025 (read)

 

» Salmon are spawning across the Seattle area. Here’s where to see them (read)

 

» “Not Medically Necessary”: Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Care (read)

 

🦄 Unicorn chaser: Last year I dressed up as a Lanternfly and my bf was an exterminator (see)

 

 

Part of the reason I took up photography in the first place was so I could be behind the camera and not in front of it,  which is, which is true of a lot of a lot of photographers, I think, but like, at some point, you know, we, we identify that it is easier emotionally to be behind the camera, but,  but, you know, going from these big gaps in my own history to, to when I had my own photos done about a month ago.

 

Yes, of course I had feelings come up when I saw my own photos this time. But there were as many good ones and neutral ones and more, more neutral. Lots of good.  Lots of neutral. Yeah. Yeah. See negative ones, but they felt very manageable. And, and again, you know, I talk about these tools all the time.

 

So I have these tools to use for myself as well and being able to use these tools and say, okay, here's why I feel this way. Here is where the, the, the direction of power here are the choices that I have available to me. And now I'm going to stare at these photos for a long time and use them everywhere.

 

I'm starting to use these new ones, you know, on social media and on my website and so on, like starting to replace the old ones. Because, not because the old ones are bad, just because they're like six years old and, you know, I don't look like that anymore. But,  but the point is that.  I went from not being able to be in the photos at all to being like, yeah, this is cool.

 

And in the few instances, it's not cool. I've got the tools to manage this. That is entirely possible for all of us. Everybody is going to look different. Mind you, yours is not going to look like mine. Yours is going to look like yours, but, but having the tools means that you can make choices on how you want to react and what you're going to do with that.

 

The feelings and things that come up and that is at least for me like having the tools is such a it is so hopeful and so It it feels powerful to me to even have the tools even if you're not good at using them yet Even if you're not, you know, not ready to use all of them even if it's you know as a practice which it will be. 

 

You know, just having those tools is having a lot of power back.