Fat Main Characters

Why they're needed, along with a few recommendations

Fat Main Characters, who needs them?? WE ALL DO.

I wrote a little about my romance reading journey in this post and I interviewed my current favorite author Leonor Soliz. But with this post, I wanted to dive into the need for plus-size (AKA FAT) main characters in romance. (I’ll use the words plus-size and fat interchangeably, because I want FAT to be a commonly used term when it comes to romance.)

Growing up, all the books I read had main characters for whom fatness was a fear, a problem, a no-no. Whether it was children’s picture books or historical fiction, a large body was always shorthand for bad. The bullies, the villains, or the ugly step-sisters were fat, not the main character. Or, in the very rare case that the protagonist was slightly larger than average, her storyline was about losing weight.

Needless to say, for a long time, the narrative has been that fatness is bad.

To be honest, I didn’t really notice that fat was a byword for badness until I was in my thirties and I found myself fatter than I ever had been. After 3 pregnancies and a lot of life, I was a mid-size fat person. In the summer of 2015, I realized just how ingrained my own anti-fatness was and that I wanted to be rid of it. That started a journey to writing and reading and listening to voices of other fat people (and some thin allies). I started to heal from the disordered thinking that had plagued me for my whole life.

Culturally, that was around the time that body positivity was beginning its heyday. The hashtags #bodypostivity and #allbodiesaregoodbodies were trending and I was into it! I grew my Instagram following with the account your_body_is_good and helped educate people about dismantling anti-fatness in their lives—from the inside and the outside. I wrote two books about the intersection of faith and fatness and hosted a podcast with my good friend Nicole. (Books here and here, and podcast still available to listen to here.)

It was clear that people were hungry (pun intended?) for a reckoning against the fat-is-bad narrative we’d been fed. I celebrated as Lindy West’s Shrill came to my tv screen, when Lizzo hit it big, and when Old Navy and Target expanded their in-store size collections. (Oh, how dated that sentence feels in the hellscape that is 2026.)

One area in which I didn’t fatify™ my preferences was in my taste in fiction. I have always loved reading, but with the addition of four kids to my family in a relatively short amount of time (I was pregnant FOREVER, from 2011-2017), I just didn’t have time to read until recently.

My romance journey started with Bridgerton, reading all the books after watching seasons 1 and 2 of the show in 2024. Of course, you know I’m a Lady Whistledown fan because Penelope Featherington represents larger girls, even though her actress Nicola Coughlan does not claim to be in the plus-size community as a size 10. (Of the Bridgerton cast, however, we know that Penelope’s character is the largest. And because size privilege is a thing, she has the least.)

My next foray into romance was because my therapist recommended Outlander to me. I started reading and I absolutely devoured the series in a couple of months. (Which is a feat, seeing that each book—9 at the moment—is more than 600 pages.) I love Claire and Jamie Fraser’s story, but I hated the anti-fatness that is present in the whole series. In spite of the anti-fatness, I spent a whole year in Scottish/Early American heaven, reading and re-reading Diana Gabaldon’s works in the expanded Outlander universe.

In summer 2025, my good friend Celeste recommended a book to me in which the female main character is disabled. Fourth Wing rocked my brain, with Rebecca Yarros’s world-building and character development. However, Violet is what Celeste calls “the portable woman” trope—where a female can just be picked up and moved around with ease because she is so small. It happens over and over again in the whole Empyrean series.

In case you can’t tell, I am not a portable woman. I am a steady, heavy reality that is hard to move. And I want to—no, I need—to have stories where steady, heavy women find love and security and pleasure. Because I know that these stories build hope, which in turn builds resilience in the face of hardship.

After reading the Empyrean series (aka all the Fourth Wing books), I could not get enough. See the chart below. In September, I kinda took off and read thousands and thousands of pages of romance. Most of it, with plus-size/fat main characters.

I finished 2025 having read over 80 romance books, and I’m already 14 books into 2026. I start my alternative teacher certification program on Tuesday, so I will not be able to read as much as I’d like. But I’ll keep reading!

All that being said, I have some romance recommendations where the main characters are plus-size/fat, AND I recognize that this list is overwhelmingly white and straight. (I’m working on changing that.) I’m linking to these books via StoryGraph, which is where those awesome reading graphics above came from. All of these earned at least 4 stars from me. These are all spicy, open-door romances, fyi.

• All of Leonor Soliz’s books: Latine author who writes sports romance and ethical billionaires (heart eyes emoji)

• Talia Hibbard’s Brown Sisters Book Set: 3 sisters find their happily ever afters

• Unreasonably Yours by Charlotte Jean: New city, new lease on life

• Rein Me In by Kayla Grosse: a cowboy romance set in Texas

• Curves for Days by Laura Moher: a summer romance with the SWEETEST mmc

• Nine Month Contract by Amy Daws: surrogate-to-lovers (i know…i know…but I’ve read it twice, I liked it so much!)

• In a Jam by Kate Canterbary: high school sweethearts rekindle their flame

• Flowers in Your Hair by Alice Daniels: the florist finds her man

Ultimately, I hope that your year includes stories where the lead is fat, because FAT PEOPLE LIVE BEAUTIFUL, STORY-WORTHY LIVES.

In 2026, I’m trying my own hand at writing a love story (with all my free time, lol). Don’t tell anyone! ;)

Love and peace to you,

Amanda