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‘My Big Fat Fabulous Life’ Star Whitney Thore Fights Back Against Fat-Shaming
Standing at 5-foot-2 and weighing in at 380 pounds, Whitney Thore has heard every cruel name you could imagine.
“‘Shamu,’ ‘Pig’ — I’ve heard it all a million times. I’ve also been spit on and snorted at. That’s just my reality,” she tells ‘In Touch.’
But the 30-year-old dancer — who first rose to fame with her YouTube series, Fat Girl Dancing and now stars in her own reality series, My Big Fat Fabulous Life — is determined to change the culture of fat-shaming, and refuses to measure her waist line.
“I spent so much time hating my body,” she revealed. “I want people to know you can be fat and smart, fat and talented — and fat and beautiful!”
Whitney with her parents, Glenn and Barbara, and Tal Fish. Photo courtesy of Getty.
Whitney admits she was always a normal weight until her freshman year of college when she quit dancing and gained 100 pounds. In 2005, she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, which made it difficult for her to lose weight — and has nearly gained an additional 150 pounds since then.
After years of being unable to face her own reflection, everything changed when she filmed her now-viral video. She tells ‘In Touch,’ “Confidence comes from action.”
Whitney at 114 pounds in high school. Photo courtesy of TLC.
She says she wants to lose about 100 pounds — for health reasons, not superficial ones, explaining, “I don’t want to be thin, but I’m not naive to the risks that come with being this size.”
Meanwhile, she’s proud of what she’s accomplished as a role model for others.
“A year-and-a-half ago, I was so unhappy and frustrated with society’s standards of beauty,” she tells the mag. “I remember lying in my mom’s lap crying, asking her, ‘When is it going to change? Who is going to fight for us?’ I never fathomed that person could be me.”
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