Do I Look Fat in This?: Life Doesn't Begin Five Pounds from Now

Women are burdened by learning early and well that unless they are slim and beautiful, they simply don't matter. Activist Jessica Weiner has been fighting this awful myth for years. In her new book she helps women see through the myth building that goes on all around them and gives them tools to be themselves. This is a great gift to women and those that love them. Jessica, we're lucky to have you.

I just saw Jessica on the Today show and she was great. Both me and my mom are reading her book now. It is the first time my mom is actually reading a book with me. I think too many of my friends read fashion magazines and worry about what diets they are on. I am going to be recommedning Jess's book to my friends instead. At least then they'll feel better about their lives instead of feeling like they always have to be skinny.

I just read Jessica's article in CosmoGirl! magazine and she rules!! She is my new favorite role model. She always has the best advice for girls on how to stop hating their bodies. She is real and cool and lives her life now - not 5 pounds from now. After I read her article I asked my mom to get me her book. I am on page 56 and I can't stop reading it! It has a lot of grown up advice but it also has a lot of advice for girls my age, too. She just makes a lot of sense. Go buy her book. You rule, Jessica!!

I am not your typical guy and I hate when books pander to men as though we are idiots who don't understand emotional compassion or intimacy. I have been looking for a book to better help me communicat with my wife and teenage daugthers. They most definitely speak in the Language of Fat - constantly asking if they look good in their clothing, always talking about food, and most times obsessing about losing weight. Many men (and women) can shake that off as just something women are supposed to talk about. But that is not OK for my girls or for my wife. Yet I wasn't sure how to answer it beyond "No" or "You look beautiful". A co worker recommended this book as she had read Jessica's prior work and I found "Do I Look Fat In This" to be a super read. It was quick, funny, and full of insight for me as a husband and father. I must admit that the book cover was daunting to carry around but once I got to reading the tips and tools of what Weiner wrote I knew I had found the answer I was looking for. I highly recommend this book to men out there who have women in their lives who ask this question. It is time as Weiner writes "to take action". It also has me questioning my own relationship to my body and watching carefully the language I speak. Well done!

I am a frequent reader of books on women's body image issues as I work with young women in high school and college. This book hands down provided me with the most realistic set of tools I could use to challenge the Language of Fat so prevelant in women's lives. I had never thought so much about how a simple phrase like "I feel fat" could really be a code phrase for something else. Weiner really lays out for us just how sabatoging this language can be in our lives. And better yet - leaves you with action steps to begin changing this language today. Women hating their bodies is an epidemic these days. Jessica Weiner is doing something about it and it works! I urge you to buy this book!