We live in a world designed to make us hate our bodies. By the time children start school, most have learned that ‘fat’ is bad. As they get older, many pursue thinness to survive in a society that ties their value to their size. Parents worry both about the risks of their kids fixating on unrealistic beauty standards – and about them becoming fat. Meanwhile, multibillion-dollar industries thrive on our insecurities, and the medical system pushes weight loss at almost any cost.

Talking to researchers, doctors, and activists, as well as parents and young people, Virginia Sole-Smith lays bare how diet culture has perpetuated a crisis of disordered eating and body hatred. She exposes our internalised fatphobia and shows why we need to let go of shame and start supporting young people in the bodies they have.

Fat Talk is a stirring, deeply researched, and ground-breaking book that will transform the conversation about health and size.