A Day in the Life (What it's like to be fat)

abc ^ | 10-27-03

[wheelgunguru]

Girl Gets a Painful Glimpse of Life as an Overweight Teen

Oct. 27 — Ali Schmidt, an outgoing, attractive 15-year-old from the Bronx, N.Y., usually looks forward to going to school. But when she showed up at Connecticut's Stratford High School for two days in September, it was a different story.

"Basically, walking down the halls was like walking into hell. I felt pain that was excruciating," she said after the miserable day.

Schmidt found herself the object of ridicule: some kids laughed at her behind her back, others made mean comments.

The reason? She was fat. At least she looked fat. In fact, she was participating in an experiment for ABCNEWS designed to capture a glimpse of the emotional and psychological impact obesity has on adolescents.

Schmidt is a slim, 5-foot-7-inch athletic girl. But for the ABCNEWS special Fat Like Me, airing tonight at 8 p.m. ET, she agreed to wear a "fat suit" that would make her look obese.

Using the same makeup and special effects that were used to make Gwyneth Paltrow look obese in the film Shallow Hal, Ali was packed with padding and layered with latex, so that she looked as though she weighed close to 200 pounds.

She found that kids she normally might expect to be friends with ridiculed her after one glance. "They're just complete jerks to you. … I wanted them to realize that I wasn't actually who I appeared to be," she said.

A single day of life as an obese teen was enough for Ali to develop a new sensitivity to the plight of her overweight peers. "Fatness," she said, "is just something that's made fun of. … People don't go, 'Ha ha, you're white,' or 'Ha ha you're black,' but they see a fat person and they think that they have the right to laugh at them."

[wheelgunguru]

All kidding aside, there are such serious health issues involved, parents should really prevent this scenario.

[pabianice]

That's "gravitically challenged" to you!

[Reagan79]

Sadly I hope nobody was expecting compassion and understanding from our nation's public schools.

[Fierce Allegiance]

This would happen to any kid new to the school, fat or not. This area is so friggin snotty, i know, becuase we just moved here 1 1/2 years ago.

[camle]

what a bunch of baloney! I love these liberal "sensitivity" exercises. they miss out on several concepts, not the least of which is that the kid knows that at some point in time, the exercise will be over and she can go back to being herself. the fact that people laugh at her may be less that she is "Fat" but that she is in a fat suit!

besides, what is the point of experiencing being obese? What is the lesson here? that people treat fat people differntly from skinny people?

why not spray paint people so they can tell what it feels like to be colored!

[willieroe]

More like a 260-pound appearance than 200. My wife is approximately 5'7" and 200, and she looks nothing like the photo to the right.

[HarleyD]

All kidding aside, there are such serious health issues involved, parents should really prevent this scenario.

My son use to be ridicule for wearing hearing aids. We taught him to be proud in himself and don't worry what others say. Now he fits in fine.

There may be issues in job discrimination but to me this is PC gone wild. If I'm fat I can't change the world's behavior but I can sure enough lose weight.

[cubreporter]

I thought this generation was supposed to be so much more caring and giving and tolerant? So much for that.

Some people should look at their own selves in the mirror before they criticize anyone else. They may not be fat but they may be too skinny, or their features may not be perfect or they may have bad hair or bad skin or bitten fingernails or any number of things that the "fat" person could rip them apart on. But, usually people who will be so mean to someone who is not like them wouldn't mind being made fun of anyway becuase they have no heart or feeling otherwise, they wouldn't take part in such an unkind act in the first place. Everyone should know that famous Native American saying about "Walk a mile in my shoes." OR the prayer about "There but for the grace of God go I." But then again when you don't believe in God or anything else that wouldn't work either. Sad, sad.

[Prime Choice]

I'm in shape! (Round's a shape, isn't it?)

;)

[per loin]

I have never understood why people allow themselves to get fat.

[expatpat]

The fact is that kids are very cruel and will pick on any imperfection in another kid's appearance/behavior which they see. If she wan't fat, it could have been zits, or glasses, clothes, or something else.

[1st-P-In-The-Pod]

Some kids will make fun of anyone, anytime, anywhere. They make fun of the student with curly hair, or straight hair. Fat, thin, short, tall, or any other thing puts you on their hit list. The really fearful teen picks on others to keep the spotlight off his/her own failings. You know, like the Clintons.

I think God likes variety, and so made us all unique. I think He did just great. This little girl tried on some fat for a day, to be shucked off tomorrow. It is too bad her peer group didn't have any maturity to slip on to see what it feels like.

[Xenalyte]

Sometimes it sneaks up on one. From my profile page, you can tell I was svelte not too long ago - about a year. Too much carbs and not enough exercise, coupled with a 34-year-old's slowing metabolism, got me 30 extra pounds I'm trying to lose.

[luckodeirish]

Kids are cruel? Kids make fun of fat peers? Wow, this is groundbreaking information.

[Tacis]

I don't her classmates were mean to her because she was fat, I think it was the very loud clip-clop sound she made as she walked.

[camle]

i can't understand how people get fat either. I eat much less than I ever have in my life, yet I am heavier than ever. I also have much more stress, and get more exercise.

you tell me.

[per loin]

The pounds hang on easier as we get older, but they drop easily too. One simply quits eating for a few days a week.

[stanz]

When I said this on the Atkins diet thread, I was practically told to leave the country.

[Hodar]

I have never understood why people allow themselves to get fat.

It's usually a gradual thing. Like cigarette addiction, alcoholism, or obeseity. A pound a month or so, a change in your regular routine, stress. And the really neat thing is that once you get a new fat cell; you get to keep it for life. So, when you decide to lose weight, you can literally gain a pound a day back should you fall off of your diet. Dr. Atkins has a really excellant set of books out... blame it on the carbs... The fatter you get, the hungrier you become.