My job at a multi-million dollar startup was to not just manage the company’s social media and outward facing brand, but also to assist my manager with our PR meetings too. Oftentimes this looked like meeting with teams from various companies and one team we often partnered with was Katie Couric’s team. We would write articles, and create campaigns around the intersection of eating disorders and media. 

One day, we were slated to come give a talk to the whole KCM staff about eating disorders, diet culture, and weight stigma. It was a zoom call and so we all hopped into the room not expecting that everyone filed in Katie Couric would be in the room too! Whoa! 

It took me several moments to realize that I was in a zoom room with THE Katie Couric and we were all chill and professional about it. My coworkers gave their talk which consisted of a variety of topics under our overarching umbrella of eating disorders and diet culture. After the talk, we had a Q&A and at a certain point, Katie was asking questions, trying to better understand how diet culture and fatphobia show up in the world. But the thing was, while she wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, she was speaking in a very fatphobic way while she was asking her questions.

My boss called one me and asked me to elaborate on the answer using my lived experience and expertise in the field. So, I immediately jumped in, spoke up, and explained many of the confusing fatphobic intricacies of weight stigma and diet culture directly to Katie Couric! 

After years of doing fat activism and body liberation work, It wouldn’t have felt right to let the comments stand, so I’m glad I got the chance to do what I do best and speak up!