Puddin' (Dumplin', #2)

by Julie Murphy

but one size doesn’t actually fit all. (Oh my gosh. That is totally my next cross-stitch.)

(I like organizing things, okay? Including my feelings.)

My magic truth—the thing that has changed everything for me—is this: the body I have shouldn’t change how deserving I am of my dreams. I stopped obsessing over my body being too round or too wide or too lumpy. Because I’m not too much of anything. I’m just enough. Even when I don’t feel like I am.

“You can use the word fat, by the way. It doesn’t bother me.” “It seems rude.” I smile. “Because you’ve only ever used it in a rude way.”

Sometimes being fat and finding clothing is like trying to ice-skate in the desert.

“There’s no skinny girl trapped inside of me, Mom. Just like there’s not one in you. This . . .” I grip my thighs and my thick arms. “This is me. And I’m done waiting to be someone else. I know what I want to do with my life. Isn’t that incredible? Some people wait their whole lives, figuring out who or what they want to be. But I know.”

And why is everyone always trying to take money away from libraries? Aren’t books sort of the reason we’re even in school at all?