Enter your e-mail address to receive updates! Jennifer Eames Ever since I was a young girl, I thought something was wrong with me because I was "a big kid". One of my most vivid memories of elementary school is being teased because I was big. Like a lot of young girls, I was a Girl Scout. On the days of our troop meeting, I used to wear my green uniform (you know, that royal green color of peas). I really disliked that color but still wore my uniform because I was proud that I was a Girl Scout. One day on the playground during recess, this boy came up to me and started chanting, "Jolly Green giant. You look like the Jolly Green giant." I remember being mortified about being publicly characterized in this manner. I just wanted to be small or invisible. And it became even more painful when the boy said, "You look like that because you are fat." I still remember that boy's name, what he looks like, where I was standing on the playground, and the overwhelming feeling of shame. I never wore my Girl Scout uniform to school again. I told my mom it was because I didn't like the color. Throughout my life I continued to struggle with accepting my "big boned" body. I used to slouch so I would not appear so tall and to minimize my breasts. As an adolescent I started doing crazy diets, like the egg diet. That's the one where you literally only eat eggs, except for the allowances of coffee, grapefruit (both diuretics), and toast. Since then I have lost over 100 lbs from yo-yo dieting, have harmed my body in the process, and am bigger than before I started dieting. Every day I am bombarded by images that feed our obsession with thinness. By society's standards there is something wrong with me because I am overweight. That is a terrible weight to grow up with; it's heavier than the actual weight I have carried around with me. Instead of continuing down a path of self destruction, however, I find strength and solace in fighting for a healthier, safer world. There is absolutely no reason why people should experience pain and discrimination because they do not fit the socially constructed definition of beauty, and that is why I volunteer for About-Face. Jennifer currently works for a biotechnology company in South San Francisco. She earned a BA degree from Wellesley College and a MPH from University of California, Berkeley.

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