HUGE
Posted By Lisa on August 31, 2010
If you haven’t noticed by my recent posts, I’m kind of interested in/sensitive to/hyper-aware of the issue of obesity, eating disorders, and weight loss. Some of the reason is because I’m obese. Some of the reason is because I have my own eating disorder.
ABC Family has this show, called HUGE (and is why I named this blog title such). When I saw the commercials for this show and kind of winced but I knew I was going to give it at least one episode. I thought, as a mother, a formerly obese teen, and currently obese woman, I should see if the message is one that I would want my kids to hear or hear something in the show that would speak to the former “me” (or even the current me).
I watched the first episode and was kind of appalled. Nikki Blonsky (from the new rendition of Hairspray) plays Willamena Rader, and Wil is “OK with her fat” and “BFFs with her fat.” She hates being at “Camp Victory” and doesn’t see the need to change. I really wondered if the show was going to have any redeeming qualities, but by the end of the first episode, my curiosity was piqued.
The series has progressed and she’s developed friendships and crushes and all those things that people tend to do. And while Wil has stopped fighting and started participating in the camp, she remains ever the rebel: steadfast in her resistance to change. Of course, through the series, you start to understand why Wil is like this. You get glimpses into what her family is like and why she was sent to the camp. Your heart softens. You get glimpses into many of the kids as well and how each one affects the other.
I was impressed with a lot of things in this show. It touched on a lot of crucial themes relevant to overweight teens and, really, just teens in general. (Hell! Just people in general.) Overeating as an eating disorder, bulimia, anorexia, exercise, cliques, teasing, homosexuality, family dysfunction, divorce, dating, unrequited romance, forbidden romance, and ultimately, the desire to fit in and be accepted as you are. And who hasn’t dealt with that (or still does)? The characters (both adults and kids) make mistakes and they don’t all get resolved and there’s often a crisis on how best to resolve the situation.
Of course, like many of the teen-centered shows on ABC Family, there is a PSA towards the end of the show advocating a healthy lifestyle. (For Secret Life it’s about teen sex… on Make It or Break It it’s about eating disorders as well)
What ultimately struck me about this show is that I think it accurately portrays some really important truths, which is that all teens tend to struggle with the same issues, and when you’re overweight, it’s just one more thing and added to it, you get teased.
Wil, despite her self-centered view of the world, is pretty level-headed when it comes to her weight. You realize that it’s not so much she doesn’t want to lose weight, but she doesn’t want to do it to please anyone but herself. She doesn’t seem to feel the need to fit into the cookie-cutter view of the world, but you start to see that she does want to change, and while it hasn’t been touched on much, hopefully for the right reasons: for herself and for her health.
I’m not saying this show is for everyone. There are definitely moments where I roll my eyes at the acting, the subject matter, etc. I will say that once they dug a little deeper, the subject matter became a lot more respectable. Ultimately I think it holds a good message for teens (and some grown ups) of all sizes:
- No matter what you look like, what you want to look like, everyone is basically equal inside. The ones who seem to have it all together, don’t.
- We all go through times where we hate ourselves, no matter the reason.
- We all need people to accept us and love us.
- We should all be more understanding of the struggles people go through.
- We all need to be healthy, not because of what you’ll look like in a bathing suit, but because it’s important to all our lives.


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