Looking back at how my body has changed over the past 15 years, I realized that I already had all the things I was waiting to be ‘thin enough’ for.
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Lagos, Nigeria
Editor’s note: This essay is available in print in our latest issue on The Life and Legacy of Buchi Emecheta. Buy the issue here.
Superman, my favourite superhero growing up, is 6’3” and weighs 225 pounds. His animated body is the absolute epitome of White strength, chivalry, and ‘masculinity’.
August 2020, 5’5” and over 210 pounds (almost as heavy as Superman, but not as tall). Oreoluwa in August 2020 during her wedding dress shopping at La Charis in Lekki Phase 1.
‘Princess dresses aren’t for fat girls’, I scoffed at the sparkly, poufy monstrosity the eager wedding dress shop assistant held out to me. I had put off wedding dress shopping to the last possible moment for two reasons. Firstly, wedding dresses did not appeal to me in the same way that they seemed to appeal to other women I knew. I had never dreamed of trying on a wedding dress of any kind—especially not a Cinderella-style dress—and I had limited enthusiasm for dress shopping itself.
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