From the author: “For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a distorted view of my own body. I was a fat kid. There was nothing wrong with my health, but I’d been fed this narrative by doctors and family and friends and bullies and the media and the world that I ought to be ashamed of my fatness, and that I was doomed to be unhappy if I didn’t shed it. I stopped eating in my late teens and lost nearly 100 pounds. I was unanimously celebrated by the people in my life.

This was before a time when drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro made it easier than ever for people to lose weight. I grew obsessed with these drugs, scared that they might streamline the radical, unhealthy weight loss I suffered through. The resulting piece stretches beyond what’s typically written on these topics by interrogating how we understand our bodies and why we feel we ought to tame them into submission. I hope this story can, in some small way, clarify that relationship as we wade deeper into the Ozempic era.”

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