Happy Halloween, my ghoulish babes! Choosing a costume (or two, or three, depending on how many parties you’re attending) can feel like a big decision. With the plus size community, we’ve made it a priority to create space for fat babes to dress up as whoever they want, including characters who are canonically thin. I love this! This is great. But also, I really really love some fat characters in TV shows and I love that only fat people can dress like them and really look like them, you know? This is why today I have a list of fat positive Halloween costumes that you can definitely pull together by the end of the month!
Rae Earl
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Rae Earl (Sharon Rooney) is the boy-crazed protagonist of the book and E4 show My Mad Fat Diary. She’s a kick-ass teenage girl juggling her mental health, friends, family and BOYS. Did I mention this all takes place IN THE 90s??? It’s basically everything you could ever want in a costume. Rae’s story does highlight her size and self-esteem, but it also shows a fat girl with a cool group of friends and a boyfriend, which I never got to see when I was growing up.
Will Rader
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Will is one of the main characters from Huge, a single-season show from ABC Family about teens at a weight loss camp. If you’ve had more than one conversation with me, you know this is one of my favorite shows and yes, I do indeed own the series on DVD. Will (Nikki Blonsky) is an fat positive extremist, vowing to gain weight at the beginning of the season to spite her parents, who forced her to go to the camp. Despite where the show takes place, the campers’ stories expand far beyond losing weight. Throughout the season, Will forms relationships, learns how to be a good friend, and maintains her body positive attitude throughout the experience. If your partner is also fat, you could do a great couples costume of Will and Ian (Ari Stidham), the guy that Will is crushing on. But they never get together because people hate seeing fat people on their TV and the show was cancelled before camp was even halfway over ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Steven Universe
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I had to include the coolest gender bending pre-teen around, Steven from the Cartoon Network show Steven Universe. Steven is a chubby little dude with a fat dad and a fat mom and weight literally never comes up in this show ever. The show is also mega queer, features amazing songs, and could be your Halloween costume inspiration for the rest of your life.
Mercedes Jones as Dr. Frank’N’Furter
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No one can bring the house down like Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), the passionate, confident singer from the hit show Glee. Mercedes has a great sense of style (more-so towards the end of the series than the beginning) but since this is Halloween, I think we should try to make a scream. In the Rocky Horror episode, Mercedes steps in at the last minute to perform the role of Dr. Frank’N’Furter, the sexy and maniacal transvestite we all know and love. She shines in this role, but Mercedes is always shining because, let’s face it, she’s a god damn star. She’s also super into her fat self and there’s only one episode about her weight/health which IMO was pretty out of place, but whatevs. Amber Riley went on to win Dancing With The Stars which was a huge victory for big girls everywhere.
Sookie
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Remember old Melissa McCarthy? I do. I know it might be difficult to sort through all of the visual gags and fat jokes from like, the last five comedy movies she’s starred in, but just try. Think back to her first big role as Sookie in Gilmore Girls. Sookie, a fat woman who started a business with her best friend, was endlessly passionate about cooking, and married her grocery delivery guy. Sookie was never the punch line to a fat joke, her character arc went from happy, successful fat women to happy successful fat woman who also has a husband and kids. Wow! Treating a fat character with dignity and not mentioning their weight is completely possible *cough cough This is Us cough*.
Donna Meagle
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For a show that features quite a lot of fatphobia, Donna Meagle (Rhetta) seems to be the one exception in NBC’s Parks and Recreations. Donna is a fat, quick-witted women with a pristine Mercedes Benz and a kind heart. Living in the #4 Most Obese City sounds like heaven to me, but this stat never touches Donna’s story line. She’s fat AND desirable AND successful AND a really good friend. She’s also one of the co-founders of one of the greatest holidays, Treat Yo Self Day (“The best day of the year!”). I took her iconic look from this moment in the series for this costume. Dress your partner up as a cashmere-velvet candy cane and you will blow the socks off of everyone at your local harvest festival.
I hope you liked this list! These are some of my favorite fat positive characters, but I’d love to know yours! Let me know in the comments! And check out my most recent Youtube video that actually accompanies this post!
