I think part of what was so important for me about Tamora Pierce’s books, especially the Emelan books and the Protector of the Small quartet, is the variety of body types her heroines have? Like I feel like a lot of books and TV shows play lip service to the whole “you should love your body no matter what you look like” idea but they don’t ever really put their money where their mouth is.

Whereas for instance it’s not an issue whether Kel or Daja are “ok” with their appearance because! They are freaking tanks! And actively benefiting from it in their day to day lives! And when they don’t get the boy or the girl, respectively, it is because of politics that have nothing whatsoever do to with what they look like! And Tris can be fat and grumpy and completely focused on her studies at the expense of a social life outside of her foster family and it is never treated as a failing or suggested that it makes her an object of pity! She doesn’t have to make nice with people who don’t respect her because of her appearance or attitude, because she doesn’t owe them her politeness or her femininity!

It was enormously important for me, as a tallish, husky girlshape preteen, to have the message of “girls can be big or strong or fat and not have to compensate for it because it’s actively a good thing” rather than “it’s ok not to have the perfect dainty figure.”