What Do You Think of “HUGE”?

Did you tune into ABC Family Monday night to watch the premiere the new buzzed about series, HUGE? If so, you weren’t alone. HUGE reached over 2.5 million viewers, making it one of ABC Family’s biggest series debuts ever. So what does it say about TV audiences when so many people are showing up to watch a show about a group of teens spending the summer at a camp for overweight teens? My hope is that it means viewers are hungry for watching programming with real characters that don’t subscribe to the overhyped and unattainable stereotype of young, thin, and beautiful.

For me, I really enjoyed the first episode. I thought the acting was fantastic (Nikki Blonsky rocked it, as did many of the other teens), the writing was good, and I thought the show did a good job of addressing the issue of weight and body image in a mostly realistic way.

One scene in particular stands out to me, and that’s when one of the campers gets sent home for making herself throw up. While binge eating and bulimia are sometimes addressed on teen dramas, it is usually skinny, popular girls who suffer from these disorders. As Hannah Westberg, author of the upcoming Louder Than Words book, Hannah, wrote in her memoir so eloquently:

When big people lose weight, they get congratulated for being healthy. No one would assume that a fat person losing weight was emotionally unhealthy. No one would consider that eating restrictions were a response to stress like they might if a thin person were to do the same thing. No one would nay-say if they were sick of looking at your fat face.

I appreciate that HUGE drew attention to this unhealthy and risky behavior and pointed out that eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes.

This week many of my friends in the Confidence Community™ have been sharing their own thoughts on the show HUGE, including the fabulous Jess Weiner. Jess even put together a Conversation Guide to help frame discussions and give viewers some things to think about regarding body image, weight, dieting, stereotypes, and the characters on the show. You can find the Conversation Guide here.

So, did you watch the premiere? What are your thoughts?