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A School Library Journal Best Book of 2020
It’s time to bare it all about bodies!
We all experience the world in a body, but we don’t usually take the time to explore what it really means to have and live within one. Just as every person has a unique personality, every person has a unique body, and every body tells its own story.
In Body Talk, thirty-seven writers, models, actors, musicians, and artists share essays, lists, comics, and illustrations—about everything from size and shape to scoliosis, from eating disorders to cancer, from sexuality and gender identity to the use of makeup as armor. Together, they contribute a broad variety of perspectives on what it’s like to live in their particular bodies—and how their bodies have helped to inform who they are and how they move through the world.
Come on in, turn the pages, and join the celebration of our diverse, miraculous, beautiful bodies!
About the author
Kelly Jensen is a former librarian and current editor at Book Riot and her own popular book blog, Stacked. She's the editor of two highly-acclaimed YA anthologies, Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World and (Don't) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start The Conversation About Mental Health. Her writing has been featured in Bust Magazine, Fortune, Bustle, and more. When not working with words, she teaches yoga, hangs out with a motley crew of pets, and enjoys all of the black licorice no one else wants. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen and her website kellybjensen.com.
Summary
Thirty-seven contributors—including model Tyra Banks, gymnast Aly Raisman, and bestselling YA authors—explore the world in their unique bodies through essays, lists, comics, and art, from the award-winning editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy.
Foreword
Thirty-seven contributors—including model Tyra Banks, gymnast Aly Raisman, and bestselling YA authors—explore the world in their unique bodies through essays, lists, comics, and art, from the award-winning editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy.
Additional text
"Jensen expertly organizes these stories into chapters on a common theme. The experiences are relayed with equal parts honesty and knowledge. A must-have anthology collection on an evergreen topic." — SLJ, starred review
"Together, [the] contributions not only emphasize acceptance and self-love but reclaim identities like 'fat' and 'disabled' and span across gender, gender identity, race, and other intersections. Readers will find many commonalities among all these differences and may begin to embrace those differences in others and, most importantly, in themselves."
— Booklist
"Each author fully and impressively engages with their intersecting identities and the ways in which these intersections affect the way their bodies are treated by society. The anthology is a comprehensive, compulsively readable guide to growing into our bodies in a politically fraught world. A thoughtful, well-rounded anthology featuring diverse voices speaking out on essential topics."
— Kirkus Reviews
