Review of Fat Girl Zine @ Marching Stars Distro

Fat Girl #15
Nicci, USA - 20 pages –1/4 sized
perzine, body image

This zine by Nicci is peppered throughout with the writers own illustrations and has a cool Japanese stab binding.

Nicci talks about her struggles to reconcile her identity as an artist with her identity as the titular fat girl: she questions why life models are always slender women and why we are forced to compare ourselves against unachievable standards of beauty.

Nicci takes her practice as an artist looking beyond standard ideas of beauty and applies it to other images that surround us on a day-to-day basis in magazines and on TV. In doing so, Nicci talks about how she has found self-acceptance and self-love for her own body shape and beauty.

It is an oft-discussed subject, but reading about it from the point-of-view of a trained artist – someone who relies on images and imagery in order to be an artist – is a fresh and fascinating take on the matter. Nicci’s writing had me nodding along in agreement a several times and it is wonderful to read something that so eloquently expresses something that we are all troubled with from time to time.

Description thanks to Em (who writes Angry Violist zine)!

Fat Girl #12
Nicci, USA - 20 pages –1/4 sized
perzine, body image

Fat Girl features some of the most incredible drawings and I’ve ever seen in a zine doodles (the entire thing is hand drawn and written). This issue’s theme is ‘community’ and Nicci writes about acknowledging fat role models, feeling supported by other fat women in any given situation and creating and sustaining positive fat communities. A really cute zine which certainly gave me things to think about.

Reviews found @ Marching Stars Distro in the UK. If you're into zines, please support distros because they support indy press! Lizzy, the owner of Marching Stars, is a pretty cool lady, and always great to deal with. :)