And it made me realise she needed to meet empowering, confident women and of course have a fully awesome best friend on her journey. Jemima goes through some very difficult moments in the book, so it was important to me to make sure they felt authentic. In Jemima Small Versus the Universe, some of the scenes are based on real things young people told me, and the social media stuff in the book is based on real comments I read online. I spoke to young people and their parents and teachers about body image and weight-related bullying in schools. I read blogs, watched YouTube videos, particularly ones about body positivity. Q: Where did you go to research the impact of body image on women and girls?Ī: As with Being Miss Nobody, I drew on some of my own personal experiences and feelings, but I also read a lot of books that explore body image, fiction and non-fiction. I hope that's the feeling readers get from reading Jemima's story. If you can look in the mirror and say: "I'm pretty amazing, actually".
Usborne winter thank you graphic skin#
Feeling comfortable in your own skin can make an extraordinary difference to your life. I suppose Jemima Small Versus the Universe partly came out of those thoughts. What I realise now is that I was scrutinizing it too.
I spent a lot of my younger years hating myself for how I looked. Women's bodies are constantly scrutinized and ogled a source of entertainment or ridicule. Just take a look at some of the daily news headlines. I can vividly remember that feeling of my body being scrutinized. I mean, where did that even come from?Īs a girl, you reach ten or 11, maybe even younger, and it's like it suddenly becomes socially acceptable to comment on your body. It seems absurd now! (It was also extremely painful.) But at the time, I was genuinely ashamed of the size of my feet. I can remember getting terrible blisters from wearing shoes two sizes too small for me because I didn't want people to think I had big feet. I was tall for my age, so people often commented on how tall or big I was, and I always felt gigantic next to my classmates. I felt desperately insecure about my appearance, including my weight. Q: Were you ever affected by questions around your own body image as a teenager?Ī: Absolutely. I thought about how I'd have felt about getting a letter like that at her age, when I already felt pretty insecure and self-conscious about my body. I looked at the picture of that girl in the newspaper and wondered how she was feeling. The entire article was written from the mother's perspective - how outraged she was, quite rightly in my opinion - but nothing about how the girl felt. Q: Can you explain why you want to tackle the question of body image in Jemima Small versus the Universe?Ī: I had read a newspaper article about a girl in Year 6 who had been weighed at school, then sent a letter from the headteacher telling her she was overweight. We asked author TAMSIN WINTER to tell us more about JEMIMA SMALL VERSUS THE UNIVERSE: At the same time, she must decide whether she wants to audition for her favourite television programme - one she could be smart enough to win. When Jemima's father is sent a letter from her school that she is overweight and will be joining a 'special programme', Jemima is mortified. Jemima learns from an early age that she is seen as overweight and with this comes awkwardness, bullying and shame. In JEMIMA SMALL VERSUS THE UNIVERSE, author TAMSIN WINTER explores body image and self-confidence through Jemima Small's journey from being bullied for her size to confidence and empowerment. She is passionate about writing stories that she hopes can make a difference to readers' lives. She has a degree in English literature and creative writing, and has been teaching, travelling the world and daydreaming for most of her adult life, and now lives in Leicestershire with her son.
She spent her childhood reading books and writing stories, mostly about cats (she loves cats so much that they still always appear in her books). Tamsin Winter grew up in a tiny village in Northamptonshire where there was nothing to do.
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