Tracy Clark

I am so lucky to get reader email. I say lucky, because it’s sort of incredible that anyone would even take the time to contact me when there is homework to do and children to feed and presidential candidates to make fun of.

That being said, reader email can be all over the place. It ranges from OMG-I-LOVE-YOU-THANK-YOU to DIE-BITCH-DIE. The best conversations usually happen somewhere in between. And yet you might be surprised to know that the reader email that breaks my heart the most has nothing to do with my book.

Since DUMPLIN’ released on September 15th, I have received so many versions of this email so many times that I’ve decided to publicly respond. The email usually goes a little something like this:

Julie,

I really loved your book so much, but I just don’t feel like it’s believable. The hot guy doesn’t go for the fat girl in real life. And two guys like Willowdean? I wish it could be true, but I just don’t buy it. The rest of the book was great. Thank you!

- Lovely Reader

In the words of Willowdean herself: SIGH. 

I understand. I get it. I do.

This post (though it may seem like it) is not about my book. I am human. I wrote a book. It has imperfections as do I. The fat girl getting the/a guy is not an imperfection. It is not unbelievable. In this way, I can tell you that the book I wrote is not broken. The world around us is. We have been taught that we are not worthy. We are not deserving. It’s a lie.

No matter how badly we want to love ourselves and our bodies, society has trained us to have this knee jerk reaction/pit of your stomach feeling that says HA! NO WAY WOULD THAT HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE!

So every time I get this email, I want to give the person on the other end a suffocatingly tight hug and whisper in their ear, “The fat girl gets the guy. Or the girl. Or the person. Or the thing they want. YOU get the guy/girl/person/thing.” 

This isn’t about hot boys. This is about wanting, demanding, and having things we (FAT PEOPLE!) are not “allowed” to have. But I will say this: when you see a fat person and a thin or traditionally attractive person together, it isn’t some accidental universal slip. It isn’t always a fetish or a case of aiming low. (Though sometimes it is and that’s another post for another day.) In most cases, it is two people who have come together as a unit because they are wholly attracted to one another. Inside and out.

Society is broken. But you don’t have to be and choosing not to be is the first step to fixing the world we live in. 

YA Series Insiders: What book have you read that somehow changed your life and how?

Tracy (tracyclark​): I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS by Maya Angelou was one of the first books to show me that we don’t have to hide from our histories. It’s what makes us who we are. She’d gone through such strife as a child, and had such an interesting young-adult life. I was profoundly inspired by her resiliency. I want to write truth in that way, even if it’s in my fiction.

YA Series Insiders: How did you become a writer?

Tracy (tracyclark​): It came from an intense desire to make people FEEL in the way that I loved to be overcome by a particular emotion when I read a good book. Loving books—all kinds of books—is a prerequisite, or should be! Beyond that, I had to stop talking about wanting to be a writer and actually start writing. A lot. Perseverance is key to getting better at your craft and to getting published.