Christine Schoenwald

I still went to the painful place of being fat-shamed and decided that was why he had refused to kiss me. The pain never fully went away.

"Throwing tons of time and energy into dieting instead of working on my novel."

I’m in an ongoing threesome with fear and anxiety.

One of the reasons that narcissists are so troubling is their lack of compassion and awareness regarding how their behavior affects other people.

Before I started to write for Ravishly, I never used the word fat, and I rarely mentioned by body-type. But since then, I’ve tried to be more honest and have worked towards self-acceptance which includes coming to terms and owning the word fat.

I’m riding my bike around a local community center on a Sunday morning.

A sad fact: Many men who are sexually attracted to fat women are ashamed of it. We need to talk about men who want sex with fat women but won't date them.

My swimsuit phobia started in middle school — that breeding ground of body shame and fear. One minute I’m a kid excitedly putting on my pink two-piece and running into the ocean, the next, I’m avoiding any place where people are known to live in their swimsuits and I might be forced to wear one.